House lawmakers call for sanctions on billionaire former Georgian prime minister

Bipartisan leaders of the Helsinki Commission are calling on the Biden administration to sanction Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire former prime minister of Georgia that critics accuse of pulling the strings in Tbilisi’s turn away from Europe and its deepening authoritarian rule. 

In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken sent last week, the Republican and Democratic heads of the independent commission call for financial sanctions on Ivanishvili and “his inner circle,” to address “key nodes of corruption and malign influence in Georgia.”

The letter was led by Reps. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), the chairman of the committee, and Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.); and commissioners Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) and Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Texas).

Ivanishvili is the founding member of Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party and despite holding one year in office in 2012, is considered a significant influence over the party’s platform. Ivanishvili is reported to be worth between $5 billion and $7 billion, having made his fortune in metals and banking in post-Soviet Russia.

While he is said to have sold off his Russian assets ahead of his term as prime minister, some non-government groups have raised concern of continued ties to the Russian economy, and his Georgian Dream party has been criticized for maintaining friendly ties with the Kremlin at the expense of closer ties with Europe.

In April, Ivanishvili gave a rare public address accusing a Western “global war party” of meddling in Georgia — part of a campaign by Georgian Dream officials criticizing Europe and the U.S. as trying to push Tbilisi into war with Russia on behalf of supporting Ukraine.  

The bipartisan letter comes as legislation has stalled in Congress to impose costs on Georgian government officials identified as undermining democratic processes, security in Georgia and violating human rights. 

The bill, called the MEGOBARI Act, which means “friend” in Georgian, passed out of the House Foreign Affairs Committee earlier this month with overwhelming bipartisan support. But the House went into recess last week, freezing any new legislative activity. The House is expected to return in September.

“We believe these actions would strongly complement our bill, the Mobilizing and Enhancing Georgia’s Options for Building Accountability, Resilience, and Independence (MEGOBARI) Act,” the lawmakers wrote of sanctions.

“This legislation would help bolster democratic practices, human rights, and the rule of law in Georgia, and reaffirm the United States’ commitment to supporting Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration and countering the influence of authoritarian regimes, particularly Russia.”

The Biden administration started to exercise consequences on some Georgian government officials in May, following the passage of a so-called foreign influence law in the country. The Georgian government argues that the legislation increases transparency in the funding sources for non-government organizations, but critics say it serves to suppress and criminalize opposition, independent media and civil society groups. 

Opponents of the foreign influence law said it directly mirrors Russian legislation passed in 2012 that has decimated the free press, civil society organizations and political opposition. Critics of the law warn its implementation, set to take place in September, will allow the government to stifle political opposition ahead of the October election. 

The Biden administration has put in place authorities to impose visa restrictions on individuals in Georgia it deems “responsible for or complicit in undermining democracy in Georgia,” as well as members of their family members. 

But the bipartisan group of lawmakers said “the pace and severity of events on the ground suggest to us that more needs to be done urgently to protect the Georgian population.”

“It must be made clear that the principal agents of corruption and malign influence in or in league with anti-Western elements in Georgia will not be free to prey on the Georgian people and attack its democracy at will,” the lawmakers wrote.  

The lawmakers further called for the Biden administration to crack down on “‘scam’ call centers” around the world that they say is a source of “dark money that sustains Georgian Dream’s system of sprawling and malign patronage…”

“We believe it is urgently imperative for the State Department, in cooperation with U.S. and friendly foreign law enforcement agencies, to take swift, immediate, and systematic action against these call center networks and other such efforts internationally to destroy or disrupt their operations,” the lawmakers wrote.