Tbilisi Court Summons Gazprom Representative over Deal with Georgia
By Tea Mariamidze
Friday, February 2
(TBILISI)—Tbilisi City Court has ordered Russian energy giant Gazprom to send its representative to the court and provide proper explanation why the terms of the recent deal with Georgia are kept in secret.
The information was released by the opposition United National Movement (UNM) member, Roman Gotsiridze, who explained that it was the UNM who filed a lawsuit to court, asking Georgian Government and Gazprom to publicize the details of the deal made in January, 2017.
“The court has made a decision and requested from Gazprom to provide the reasons and explanation why the contract is confidential. After this the court will consider the possibility of further public disclosure of the contract,” Gotsiridze said, adding the decision of the court was “unprecedented.”
He says this is the first step to reveal all details of “vague and economically unprofitable” deal with the Russian gas provider.
“At the same time, we request creation of a temporary parliamentary commission to study the circumstances of the agreement,” the MP added.
Earlier last month Gotsiridze stated that the agreement with Gazprom resulted in around 80 million Gel ($30.80 million) loss to the country.
“There are too many questions the government has to answer,” Gotsiridze stated.
This is not the first time the opposition asks for disclosure of the details of the deal with Gazprom but the government says agreement is a commercial secret, adding the conditions of the deal remained the same, and only the form of payment was changed.
The deal with Gazprom was made on January 10, 2017; according to it, Georgia as a transit country for the transportation of Russian gas to Armenia, will receive payment from Gazprom from 2018.
Under the previous agreement, which expired on December 31, 2016, Russia was paying Georgia for gas transportation by supplying natural gas to the amount of 10% of the volume of transported gas.
