Georgian Dream Billionaire Ivanishvili Is Sanctioned by US
- Treasury says that he has ‘eroded democratic institutions’
- Georgian premier says such criticism is ‘nothing new’
Bidzina Ivanishvili
Photographer: Giorgi Arjevanidze/AFP/Getty Images
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The US Treasury sanctioned Georgian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder of Georgian Dream, the political party that has turned away from the West in favor of closer ties with Russia.
The US designated Ivanishvili “for undermining the democratic and Euro-Atlantic future of Georgia for the benefit of the Russian Federation,” Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a statement Friday. The tycoon and Georgian Dream “have eroded democratic institutions, enabled human rights abuses and curbed the exercise of fundamental freedoms,” it said.