The U.S. State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller on Friday announced that the U.S. has sanctioned “dozens” of Georgian individuals in its first tranche of sanctions.
In his statement, Miller said: “The U.S. remains deeply concerned with the Georgian Dream party’s antidemocratic actions, as well as its recent statements and rhetoric. These actions risk derailing Georgia’s European future and run counter to the Georgian Constitution and the wishes of its people.”
“Secretary Blinken recently announced a comprehensive review of all bilateral cooperation between the United States and Georgia. As part of that review, the Department implemented a new visa restriction policy under section 211 A 3C of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Today, under this policy we are taking steps to impose visa restrictions on dozens of Georgian individuals. This includes individuals responsible for or complicit in, or immediate family members of those responsible for or complicit in, undermining democracy in Georgia, such as undermining the freedom of peaceful assembly and association, violently attacking peaceful protesters, intimidating civil society representatives, and deliberately spreading disinformation at the direction of the Georgian government,” he stated.
Matthew Miller went on to explain that the first tranche of visa restrictions “comprises of members of the Georgian Dream (GD) party, members of Parliament, law enforcement and private citizens.”
“It remains our hope that Georgia’s leaders will reconsider their actions and take steps to move forward with their nations’ long-stated democratic and Europe-Atlantic aspirations. But if they do not, the U.S. is prepared to take additional actions,” he declared.
Asked about the number of sanctioned individuals, Miller said, “It is between two to three dozen.” Asked whether they have been notified, the Spokesperson noted that those who have U.S. visas will receive notifications, in other cases “we typically don’t notify people but they find out if they try to come to the United States.”
Asked about how the Department selected those individuals, Miller said: “First of all, I can’t give you specific names. That’s not the exact question, but just as a reminder to everyone that visa records are confidential under law, so I’m not able to say with any degree of specificity, but as I said in the statement, we’ve looked at the people who have taken actions to spread disinformation, who have taken actions to undermine democracy, to violently attack peaceful protesters, and intimidate civil society representatives, and as I said, this is just the first step in our series of actions, and I should note that the actions that we are prepared to take are not just necessarily related to these new sanctions that we are posing. We have also said we are undertaking a full review of our relationship with the government of Georgia.”
As for the question about the possible number of tranches, Miller noted: “I can’t give you any definition on that question today. I can tell you that we are prepared to impose additional sanctions, and we will take all other steps as appropriate.”
When asked what message the U.S. is trying to send by sanctioning in several tranches, Miller stated: “As I said, there’s still time for the Georgian government to reverse the trajectory that it’s on. That doesn’t just apply with respect to this law they passed. It applies to the way they have been cracking down on dissent. It applies to the statements that their leaders have made, rejecting the path that Georgia has been on for so long, so there is still time to turn it around, and our policy will be dependent on the policy that Georgia undertakes.”
