MONEY TRANSFERS FROM RUSSIA TO GEORGIA SUSPENDED

Regnum, Russia
Nov 18 2006

The money transfers from Russia to Georgia via the UNIStream system
were suspended because of a sharp decline in their volume, the chairman
of the council of the Unibank, the president of the Uniastrum bank
(Moscow) Gagik Zakaryan said during a press-conference in Yerevan
today, Nov 17.

He said that the volume of money transfers from Russia to Georgia has
decreased by 3-4 times because of "the measures taken with regard to
Georgian gastarbeiters" and the technical problems of the Georgian
banks.

Asked why UNIStream has stopped remitting money from Armenia to
Georgia, the chairman of the Board of the Unibank Vardan Atayan said
that the system is located in Moscow and all money transfers are
made via Moscow. "The transfer of money from Armenia to Georgia is
carried out via Moscow and, if the system stops transferring money
from Russia to Georgia, we can’t do it from Armenia," Atayan said.