Cover-up as a Business Model
Georgia as a Transshipment Hub for Russian Oil
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Western countries are trying to reduce Russia’s oil revenues with import bans. But these are being circumvented in a variety of ways. Companies from Georgia are involved in circumventing sanctions. They are enabling Russian oil exports to Europe by providing infrastructure, logistics, and mechanisms to provide a fig leaf of legality. Georgia’s exports of oil products have risen sharply, although the country had no refineries before October 2025. There is a high risk that the petrochemical facility now operating in Kulevi on Georgia’s Black Sea coast will be used to facilitate cover-ups of illicit oil sales.
(Osteuropa 10/2025, pp. 161–168)