US imposes sanctions on former Georgian Prime Minister Ivanishvili

The US Treasury Department has added former Georgian Prime Minister and founder of the Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili to the anti-Russian sanctions list. This is stated in a report published on December 27 on the website of the agency.

He was added to the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Special Category Nationals (SDN) list.

Ivanishvili served as prime minister from October 2012 to November 2013.

Trump will come and restore order: what is happening to the Georgian Maidan

EU fails to agree sanctions against ruling party

Protests are underway in Georgia over the suspension of European integration talks and the opposition's disagreement with the results of parliamentary elections.

Western countries have reacted particularly strongly to the Georgian government's postponement of the decision to join the European Union (EU). Against this background, the U.S. State Department suspended its partnership with Georgia and began imposing sanctions, while a number of other EU countries also imposed restrictions. Prior to that, the West also did not support the Georgian law on foreign agents.

Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Kobakhidze said that European politicians threatened the country with Maidan, but another attempt to organize a revolution failed. He also noted that the issue of EU accession was being used to blackmail Tbilisi. The speaker of the country's parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, called the United States sanctions, which are being adopted by the outgoing administration of the current American leader Joe Biden, pointless.