Recently, Formula TV has been deliberately disseminating disinformation aimed at artificially linking Georgia, its ports and maritime waters to potential schemes for circumventing international sanctions. Such a statement was released by the Maritime Transport Agency.

“At the same time, speculation has been circulated alleging that Georgia’s maritime waters or the coastline of occupied Abkhazia are being used for the purpose of circumventing sanctions.

In modern maritime navigation, the movement of large vessels, their entry into ports, or ship-to-ship (STS) cargo transfer operations are not activities that can be concealed simply by temporarily switching off the Automatic Identification System (AIS).

Such operations generate and involve a wide range of technical data, the combined analysis of which makes it possible to establish an accurate picture of events. The absence of an AIS signal, in itself, proves neither that a vessel entered a port nor that sanctions were circumvented, contrary to the claims made by Formula TV.

The information disseminated by the television channel concerning the alleged covert operation of large tankers in the ports of occupied Abkhazia is equally speculative. The coastline of Abkhazia does not possess the port infrastructure required for the safe reception and full servicing of large vessels of this size and type. Likewise, any ship-to-ship cargo transfer operation would necessarily require the presence of a second vessel, its corresponding movements, and other associated operational activity.

Georgia’s maritime transport system is one of the most important pillars of the country’s international transit function and of the transport corridor connecting Europe and Asia. Its international reputation is therefore a matter of Georgia’s strategic national interest.

The presentation by Formula TV of such allegations as established facts, based on isolated AIS data and incompetent interpretations; the unfounded association of Georgia with the circumvention of international sanctions; and the deliberate creation of suspicion towards the country’s ports and maritime transport system go beyond the bounds of an ordinary journalistic error and constitute an irresponsible and damaging information campaign directed against the state”.