Georgia has not received official letters on sanctions from Ukraine

Georgia has not yet received an official letter from Ukraine about the imposition of sanctions against the country's authorities, but this situation itself shows that things are not going well in Kiev. This was stated by Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on December 5.

"We have not received an official notification yet. <...> The imposition of sanctions points to the difficult situation in Ukraine," the politician said at a briefing.

Earlier, on December 5, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (his term ended on May 20) signed a decree imposing sanctions against 19 representatives of the Georgian authorities. Among those hit by the restrictions are Prime Minister Kobakhidze, founder of the Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili, head of the country's Interior Ministry Vakhtang Gomelauri, head of the State Security Service Grigol Liluashvili, Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze, as well as some judges and members of the Georgian parliament.

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Before that, on December 4, Zelensky announced that he intends to impose sanctions against the Georgian authorities for the dispersal of protesters in Tbilisi. At the same time, he did not specify what kind of measures he was talking about. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova suggested that the Ukrainian president was obviously "angry that Georgia had found the strength to reject the Ukrainian scenario".

Protests have been going on in Georgia for several days due to the suspension of negotiations on European integration and the opposition's disagreement with the results of the parliamentary election. On December 3, the country's Prime Minister Kobakhidze made a statement that another attempt to organize a revolution in the country based on the Ukrainian Maidan scenario had failed.

Georgian security forces were forced to use tear gas to disperse demonstrators in the center of Tbilisi. On November 30, protesters tried to set fire to the Georgian parliament building and damaged dozens of offices.

Amid these events, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili refused to step down when her term expires at the end of December. In response, Kobakhidze warned that she would be required by law to leave office.