Georgia's ruling party leader rules out sanctions against Russia

TBILISI. May 30 (Interfax) - Georgia will not impose sanctions on Russia despite the European Union's stance, leader of the Georgian Dream ruling party Irakli Kobakhidze said.

"Our position on the sanctions remains unchanged: we do not impose sanctions on the Russian Federation," Kobakhidze said at a parliament meeting on Tuesday.

Georgia does not want an escalation, whereas Georgia's imposition of sanctions on Russia would have grave economic consequences for the country and the population, he said.

"As you know, the EU ambassadors met with the Georgian economy minister yesterday in connection with the so-called flight demarche. [...] This demarche essentially demands that we impose sanctions on Russia," Kobakhidze said. This came as a surprise for Georgia, as the European partners said earlier they would ask no such thing of Georgia, he said.

"We have repeatedly said that the imposition of sanctions on anyone should punish the latter, whereas sanctions penalizing your own country and people, instead of someone else, are obviously absurd and we could do no such thing," Kobakhidze said.