Ruling party Sec-Gen: “no one can blackmail me with sanctions” over “Georgia’s interests”

Kakha Kaladze, the Secretary General of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday reacted to recent sanctions by the United States on a number of Georgian officials and citizens by saying he would “not compromise the national interests” over possible further sanctions. 

Nobody can use Georgia to serve the interests of other forces. No one can blackmail me with sanctions when it comes to the country's and the people's interests. Georgia’s interests will not be given up. We will not allow anyone to use our country to pursue their own agendas and cause the kind of problems we are unfortunately seeing in Ukraine”, Kaladze told the press. 

The US Department of the Treasury last week imposed financial sanctions on four Georgian citizens, including two senior law enforcement officials, for “serious human rights violations”, and imposed visa restrictions on more than 60 Georgian individuals and their family members, which it claimed were “responsible for, or complicit in, undermining democracy in Georgia”.

The first tranche of US sanctions came in June, after the adoption of the controversial law on transparency of foreign influence by the Parliament following its reintroduction by the ruling Georgian Dream party. 

The US also imposed visa bans on three acting and one former Georgian judges last year for their alleged involvement in corruption. 

The Georgian Dream authorities have slammed the sanctions as “unfair” and “unjustified”.