Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Gharibashvili said at the beginning of the government meeting, that Georgian government was not going to impose economic sanctions for Russia. He explained that imposing sanctions on Russia means sanctioning Georgian people.

"Should Georgia join the economic sanctions against Russia?! I made a statement about it, based on the national interests of the country, we said that we will not participate in it. I want to explain this decision briefly and simply ...

As a result of our reasonable and national patriotic policy, launched by Bidzina Ivanishvili on October 1, 2012, we have achieved everything - the Association Agreement with Europe, visa-free travel, free trade and much more. At the same time, we managed to open the Russian market.

I would like to remind you what the opening of the Russian market means:

In 2013-2021, a total of $ 2 billion worth of agriculture products were exported from Georgia to Russia; Total exports of other products amounted to 2.2 million tons, which value made up USD 3 billion, including wine exports, amounted to USD 865 million.

Since then, the country received $ 3 billion in tourism revenue in the last 5 years and more than 5 million visitors entered Georgia.

As for money transfers ... Do not forget 1 million of our fellow citizens live in Russia. The average annual transfer value is USD 500 million, of which USD 3 billion comes from Russia to help their families. If we calculate, it turns out to be more than 12 billion in total in 8 years.

When it comes to imposing sanctions, almost the whole population involved in all this, thousands of winemakers, exporters, farmers. What are you telling me to impose sanctions on our own people? Who will be affected by this? Our 1 million citizens, who will not be able to transfer money from Russia, will be affected," Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili said at the governmental session.