Anaklia Port was not on the agenda, Georgian Envoy to Russia claims
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Wednesday, March 6
Georgian Special Representative for the relations with Russia Zurab Abashidze has dismissed speculations that the Anaklia deep sea internationally important project, which is planned to be built in Georgia, was not on the agenda of his meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin in Prague last week.
The opposition says that the Anaklia Deep Sea project, which will cost 2.5 billion USD, is not in the interests of Russia, as the project will make Georgia economically strong and will play its positive role for the country’s NATO intentions.
The United National Movement and the European Georgia opposition claim that the recent turmoil around the founders of the TBC Bank, who created the Anaklia consortium to invest in and attract funds for the project, is directly related with the project.
They say that the founder of the Georgian Dream party, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, “who is the man of Russia,” takes all measures to disrupt the project.
“I cannot understand why we should have discussed this topic? As for the threatening remarks made by the Russian Defense Minister [regarding threats coming from NATO for the region], we think it is absolutely unacceptable,” Abashidze said and added that Russia is always irritated by NATO’s activeness in the Black Sea region.
Karasin said in his interview with Kommersant that Tbilisi must make a choice between pace in the region and its Euro-Atlantic goals.
After the meeting with Abashidze, he also stated about a coming, “unpleasant surprise” for Georgia.
Abashidze-Karasin meeting format was initiated by the Georgian Dream leadership in 2012 to improve trade-economic relations between the countries, as Russia and Georgia have no diplomatic relations since the Russia-Georgia 2008 war.
