Officials say up to ten ships were denied by the Georgia’s central authorities to enter port of Batumi on March 16, in the wake of President Saakashvili announced on Monday land, sea and air blockade of defiant Adjarian Autonomy.
“The ships willing to berth in the Batumi port were warned that entry is denied and now these ships will berth in the port of Poti [coastal town just north of Adjara],” Badri Bitsadze, chief of Georgian border guard department told reporters.
Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania said that Adjarian leader Aslan Abashidze is concerned with cutting sea routes to Batumi.
“He [Aslan Abashidze] talked to me by phone twice this morning. He seems to be very alarmed by the central authorities’ moves. He thought that we would only make statements and would not have enforced our decisions,” Zurab Zhvania told reporters in Poti.
President Saakashvili announced late on March 15 that Georgia’s central authorities imposed “partial” economic sanctions against its defiant Adjarian Autonomy in a bid “to exhaust Adjarian regime’s resources in two weeks.