TBILISI, May 24. /TASS/. The United States’ threats to impose sanctions on Georgian politicians who adopted the foreign agent law are "ridiculous," Mamuka Mdinaradze, the executive secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia party and the parliamentary majority leader, said.
"This is an unprecedented and at the same time ridiculous thing when you impose sanctions on a lawmaker elected by the people for passing a law he believes to be right," he wrote on his Facebook page (Facebook is banned in Russia due to its ownership by Meta, which has been designated as extremist).
Commenting on US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s statement that the sanctions will apply not only to Georgian decision-makers but also their family members, Mdinaradze noted that "even the former Soviet Union dropped the idea of placing responsibility on family members dozens of years before its collapse." As for the US visa sanctions, he stressed that "the country’s independence cannot be bargained for any visas."
He slammed the West’s pressure in the past several days as a "policy of blackmail and threats" meant to stop Georgia from making independent decisions in its own interests.
Earlier, Blinken announced that the US administration had begun a comprehensive review of bilateral cooperation with Georgia after it adopted the foreign agent law. The US Department of State "is implementing a new visa restriction policy for Georgia that will apply to individuals who are responsible for or complicit in undermining democracy in Georgia" and their family members, the top US diplomat said.
The Georgian legislature passed a bill On Transparency of Foreign Influence, also known as the foreign agent bill, in the third reading on May 14. That prompted threats from the European Union to halt the country's integration into the association. US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O'Brien said that the US would impose sanctions on Georgian officials if democracy was undermined in the country. President Salome Zourabichvili vetoed the law on May 18, but according to Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili, lawmakers plan to override it. Parliament will vote on the matter next week.