On August 1, “iFact” published an investigation revealing a scheme through which sanctioned dual-use items are being sent to Russia. On August 9, the Revenue Service of the Ministry of Finance published a Facebook post in which they described our work as biased and accused us of spreading false propaganda.
The Revenue Service claims that we do not properly explain dual-use products in the article, stating that “a dual-use item can be found in your kitchen or bathroom, as well as in military weapons. For example, the ‘brains’ of washing machines and refrigerators.”
In reality, the dual-use products were explained in our article based on the official information provided by the Revenue Service. To make this explanation easier to understand for our readers, it was further explained through our respondents’ interviews.
Excerpt from the article: “According to the Georgia Revenue Service, dual-use items are products that can be used for both civilian and military purposes, as well as for the manufacture of biological, chemical or nuclear weapons, or explosives containing nuclear material.”
The example of refrigerators and washing machines was provided additionally to illustrate the trend of a significant increase in the export of household appliances to Russia and Central Asian countries since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. We have not mentioned that these household appliances and their parts are included in the official list of sanctioned dual-use items.
The list issued by the Georgian government on June 13, 2014, by resolution #394, which the Revenue Service refers to, is also mentioned in our article, and the relevant link is referred.
Excerpt from the article: “According to a 2014 government decree, there is a list of military and dual-use items that includes nine categories of products, such as electronics, computers, nuclear materials, navigation, and communication systems.”
Therefore, it is not clear what the reason is for the Revenue Service critic. Neither “iFact” claims that the integrated circuits of washing machines and refrigerators are part of the official list of dual-use items.
Regarding GPS devices, for example, the “Garmin” brand radio navigation equipment, this device is part of HS code [852691] and is officially included in the dual-use items list.
We provide a screenshot from the first list compiled after the full scale war in Ukraine, where radio navigation equipment is listed as dual-use and battlefield high-priority item.
Additionally, the fact that “Garmin” GPS devices are used on the battlefield is confirmed by the photo documentation provided in the article.
The Revenue Service accuses us of mistakenly mixing high-priority and dual-use items, which is a baseless accusation. Again, In the article, high-priority battlefield items are mentioned only once in the form given below:
Excerpt from the article: “The European Union, the USA, Japan, and the United Kingdom compiled a list of items highly prioritized for the battlefield, making it illegal to send them to Russia. This list has been updated several times and currently includes 50 named products.”
While using specific terminology, we were guided from official documents. The list of 50 sanctioned products compiled by the European Union, the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom have used exactly this term.
The Revenue Service states that our article does not consider the changes in the amount of sanctioned products at various periods between 2022-2024. This is also false because we have provided the relevant information below the visualization.
As for the claim by the Revenue Service that “none of the companies mentioned by us have been involved in exporting/re-exporting high-priority goods under the relevant SES commodity code, including “Asteri Group Ltd” and “Elektromek-BT Ltd” with no customs procedures executed,” this statement confirms that there is a really uncontrolled situation at Georgia’s borders, which should be noted by the Revenue Service, and they should launch an investigation regarding this issue.
It is noteworthy that the Revenue Service says nothing about the two experiments conducted by “iFact,” in which transportation companies themselves told us about their experience in exporting sanctioned goods to Russia.
For our readers, we do emphasize one more time, that our seven-month investigation is based on official statistical data, and all the facts mentioned in the article are proven by the documentary evidence.
A list of used sources in the material can be found at this link.
We remind you that before publishing the material, we requested an interview with an official figure from the Revenue Service press office. Therefore, we were interested in how the Revenue Service controls the situation, what they consider to be the solution to prevent sanctioned goods from reaching Russia through so-called third countries, or whether they intend to investigate the facts revealed by our investigation.
The Revenue Service again gave us a superficial response. Therefore, we referred all their written responses in full and unchanged way.
Excerpt from the article: “All documents reflecting communication with the Revenue Service can be found here.”
The investigation by “iFact” aims to identify existing problems in the country to ensure a quick and effective reaction. Our interest in dual-use items trading was driven by this purpose, we paid attention not only to the problems, but also to the potential solutions. If the Revenue Service really wants to improve the situation, they can follow the example we obtained from Lithuania.
