"Shadow business": Georgian trucks heading to the EU are stuck in Russia

The head of the Georgian Center for the Study of Transport Corridors, Paata Tsagareishvili, said that the negotiations of carriers with the Georgian Foreign Ministry are constructive and will be continued.

According to him, the problem is connected with "new restrictions on the part of Russia, which seriously complicated the work of Georgian drivers." Tsagareishvili stated that in Russia has accumulated a lot of trucks blocked on the road to the EU.

"To date, a lot of vehicles have accumulated in the Russian space, which blocked the way towards the European Union. In fact, these vehicles are not used in the Russian space. I will not hide and say that these vehicles often belong to persons who own a shady business: there is a governor, deputy and so on. Naturally, they want to use some indirect leverage to include these vehicles in the direction of transportation," Tsagareishvili said on BMGT.

Earlier, a rally of carriers and drivers protesting against the restrictions imposed in Russia was held near the Georgian Foreign Ministry building.

According to information Bm.ge , the Russian Federation began to "fine and deport Georgian drivers."

"The reason given is a violation of the visa regime, and according to the new rules, the period of visa—free stay of drivers in the Russian Federation has been reduced from 180 to 90 days, which greatly complicates their work," the report says.

It should be recalled that Tbilisi severed diplomatic relations with Moscow in 2008 and since then the Russian section at the Swiss Embassy has been engaged in relations between the countries.