We're looking west, says defiant Georgian PM

Georgian prime minister Zurab Nogaideli told an American audience that the former Soviet republic was successfully redirecting its economy away from Russia and turning towards the West.

Even as Russia responded to recent political friction with economic sanctions and threatened to cut off supplies of natural gas in the midst of winter, Georgia expected to meet its energy needs through a deal with Azerbaijan and was looking to new markets for its exports, Nogaideli said.

In a sometimes defiant tone, he told an audience at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington that his country had already weathered the economic impact of Russia’s policies.

He said Georgia had moved rapidly to improve energy efficiency, already was meeting its electricity needs and expected to reduce Russia’s share of Georgia’s natural gas supply from 100% now to under 20% within 30 days through new non-Russian contracts. Despite the Russian sanctions, the country’s gross national product would grow by 10% this year, he said.

“There is no crisis any longer,” Nogaideli said.

Georgia’s relations with Russia have long been troubled by its much larger neighbour’s support for separatists in two Georgian regions. They soured further after Georgia’s brief detention of four purported Russian spies in September.

Russia imposed economic sanctions, which Georgian leaders have criticised as Moscow’s retaliation for the Caucasus nation’s pro-Western course.

Russia’s state gas monopoly, OAO Gazprom, has said it plans to charge Georgia €180 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas, compared with the £57 that it pays now. Gazprom also warned it would cut off supplies by January 1 if a contract had not been signed.

Nogaideli has rejected the demand as “political blackmail” and has sought urgently to find a new supplier. He warned in Washington that the Caucasus region needed to be wary of Russian energy monopolies.

“We need multiple supplies of energy and dynamic competition,” he said.

Georgia was also looking to find new export markets in Europe, the US and in neighbouring Turkey, with which it hopes to reach a free trade agreement in coming months, he said.

“Georgia is a European country. Because of this sense of European identity, we want to become fully integrated in the Euro-Atlantic institutions.”