Georgian Railway purchased locomotives in Russia, outraged in NGOs

The Georgian Railway has purchased Russian locomotives for 216 million lari (more than 7 billion rubles), the non-governmental organization Liberty Institute reported.

According to the NGO, $80,519,105 were transferred from the Georgian budget to Georgia LLC, which in turn purchased 10 units of locomotives from the Ural Locomotives plant.

The organization notes that this plant is "spoiled by the attention of Russian President Vladimir Putin." On February 15, Putin visited the plant, inspected it and got acquainted with the electric locomotives.

According to the Georgian edition of Sova, Georgia LLC is the only company that took part in the tender for the purchase of mainline electric locomotives, "its owner is closely associated with Georgian Dream and has been a sponsor of the ruling party since 2017."

As EADaily reported, on the eve of the Liberty Institute, it had already made an "exposure" that the Georgian authorities had purchased Russian oil for the Georgian Defense Forces without a tender. It is alleged that sunflower oil of the Efko Food group of Russian companies was purchased for the Georgian Armed Forces in June 2024.

The supplier of vegetable oil is called Georgian Distribution Marketing Company Ltd., three shareholders of which "in 2017 donated 60 thousand lari each to the Georgian Dream (about 22 thousand dollars), and in 2012 — to the then ruling party United National Movement."