Georgian Parliament Speaker accuses EU of hypocrisy over increased Russian LNG imports

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Friday accused the European Union of hypocrisy, criticising the bloc for increasing its imports of liquefied natural gas from Russia.

Papuashvili was responding to a journalist’s question about recent reports that the European Union had spent an estimated €8.7 billion on Russian liquefied natural gas from the Arctic Yamal project during the first ten months of 2026.

He noted that, in monetary terms, the amount the EU paid Russia for liquefied natural gas in just a month and a half was equivalent to the total value of Georgia’s annual trade turnover with Russia.

“We have stated this on numerous occasions, and there have been many examples confirming the hypocrisy we see in the European Union’s attitude toward Georgia. We witnessed the EU urging us to refrain from any form of trade with Russia, effectively calling on us to inflict damage on various sectors of our economy, particularly winemaking and agriculture. Yet, we subsequently discovered that Lithuania was the world's largest exporter of wine to Russia”, the Speaker said.

“We see the same thing today. Regarding oil and energy products, they tried to persuade Georgia not to purchase cheaper resources from Russia, urging us to prohibit our businesses from importing fuel from Russia. Yet, it turns out that they themselves are setting records by increasing their imports of liquefied natural gas from Russia. In monetary terms, the European Union pays Russia for liquefied natural gas alone, in just a month and a half, an amount equivalent to Georgia’s entire annual trade turnover with Russia. Our total imports from Russia amount to approximately $1.5 billion or slightly more, while the European Union pays Russia one billion for liquefied natural gas alone. This exposes the hypocrisy behind their public statements”, he concluded.