"Russia Bypasses Western Supplies Through Georgia"

Import Scale Recovers to Pre-War Levels

Russia is importing Western goods via land routes through Georgia to evade European Union (EU) sanctions, the US daily The New York Times (NYT) reported on the 14th (local time).

According to the report, trucks are lined up in extremely long queues on winding highways crossing the Caucasus Mountains, waiting their turn to transport cargo into Russia. The cargo is very diverse, including automobile parts, industrial raw materials, chemicals, and filter paper for tea bag production. Most of these are Western-made products loaded onto trucks in T?rkiye, an EU member country, and delivered to Russia.

According to TBC Capital, Georgia's largest investment bank, cargo transport between T?rkiye and Russia tripled in volume in the first half of last year. A large portion of this was transported via Georgian roads. Among trucks traveling from T?rkiye to Russia, some choose routes passing through Armenia or Azerbaijan instead of Georgia.

The Russian government announced that its economic growth rate was about minus 3% last year. This suggests that Western sanctions did not inflict as much damage on Russia's economy as initially expected. Based on data from the Russian Central Bank, the NYT explained, "Overall, by the end of 2022, Russia's import volume had almost recovered to the level before the war started," and customs revenue also increased.