The leaders of the Helsinki Commission are calling on the US administration of Joe Biden to impose sanctions on Georgia’s billionaire former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, whom critics accuse of pulling the strings in Tbilisi’s deepening authoritarian rule and its drift away from Europe.
A letter from the Republican and Democratic presidents to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called for financial sanctions against Ivanishvili and her inner circle to address “key areas of corruption and malign influence in Georgia”.
Ivanishvili is a founding member of Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party and is considered to have significant influence over the party’s platform, although he only held office for one year in 2012. Ivanishvili, who made a fortune in metals and banking in post-Soviet Russia, reportedly has a fortune of $5-7 billion.
Although he is said to have sold his assets in Russia prior to becoming prime minister, some civil society groups have expressed concern about his continued ties to the Russian economy, and the Georgian Dream party has been criticised for maintaining friendly ties with the Kremlin at the expense of closer ties with Europe.
In April, Ivanishvili made one of his rare speeches, accusing a Western global war party of meddling in Georgia as part of a campaign in which Georgian Dream officials criticised Europe and the United States for trying to push Tbilisi into war with Russia in support of Ukraine.
The Biden administration had begun imposing sanctions on some Georgian government officials following the adoption of the so-called foreign influence law in the country in May. While the Georgian government argues that the law increases transparency in the funding sources of non-governmental organisations, critics say it serves to suppress and criminalise dissent, independent media and civil society groups.
The lawmakers also called on the Biden administration to crack down on “‘fraud’ call centres” around the world, which they said were “sources of black money that perpetuate the Georgian Dream’s sprawling and malignant patronage system…”
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