Ukraine sanctions Georgian leaders over crackdown on pro-EU protests
Al Jazeera
President Zelenskyy targets the prime minister and other Georgian Dream figures for ‘handing the country over to Putin’.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has sanctioned top Georgian officials, including the prime minister and the billionaire founder of the ruling party, in a bid to halt the country’s apparent drift into Russia’s orbit.
Zelenskyy announced the sanctions on Thursday after a seventh consecutive night of protests against Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s decision to delay talks on joining the European Union, a move thought to have been steered by Bidzina Ivanishvili, the country’s wealthiest man who founded the governing party Georgian Dream.
Speaking in a video posted on Telegram, Zelenskyy said the sanctions against both figures and 17 other government members – including Georgia’s state security service chief and interior minister – were “against the part of the government in Georgia that is handing Georgia over to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin”.
Ukraine, which was invaded by Russia in 2022, will impose 10-year restrictions on financial operations on entry to Ukraine and on property rights in Ukraine.
The Black Sea nation has been rocked by turmoil since Georgian Dream won disputed parliamentary elections on October 26, with opposition figures claiming that the results of what was seen as a de facto referendum on EU accession had been rigged under Russian influence.
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