President Volodymyr Zelensky signed Decree No. 816/2024, which imposes sanctions against the part of the Georgian government responsible for the countryʼs pro-Russian course and the dispersal of pro-European protesters.
The President reported this in a video message.
"This is what happens in international affairs: if you donʼt react in time or if you react unprincipledly, then decades are lost and countries are deprived of their freedom," he said.
And he called on the USA, the EU and everyone in the world to act in the same way.
The sanctions concern, in particular, the oligarch and founder of the Georgian Dream party Bidzin Ivanishvili and 19 of his "accomplices", including:
- Kobakhidze Iraklii — Prime Minister of Georgia;
- Homelauri Vakhtang — head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia;
- Liluashvili Grigol — head of the Georgian Security Service;
- Kaladze Kakhaber — Mayor of Tbilisi;
- Mdinaradze Mamuka — executive secretary of "Georgian Dream";
- Partskhaladze Otar — a former Prosecutor General of Georgia.
What preceded
Parliamentary elections were held in Georgia in October. According to the Central Election Commission, the pro-ruling pro-Russian party "Georgian Dream — Democratic Georgia" won with 53.9% of the vote. According to Georgian laws, this party gets the right to single-handedly form the government. The European Parliament did not recognize the election results.
Four more pro-Western opposition parties broke the 5% barrier. The opposition and the president did not agree with the results, protests began.
On November 28, 2024, the Prime Minister of Georgia Iraklii Kobakhidze declared that Georgia was abandoning negotiations on joining the EU until 2028. He explained that 2028 will supposedly be the time when Georgia will be economically ready to start accession negotiations. After that, large-scale protests began in the country, which were dispersed by security forces.
- In early December, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia jointly imposed sanctions against representatives of the ruling party and high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia. The head of the Estonian Foreign Ministry Margus Tsahkna emphasized that the Baltic countries do not welcome "opponents of democracy" and "violators of human rights".
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