Targeted sanctions from Western countries are urgently needed in relation to the pro-Russian oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili and his entourage from the ruling Georgian Dream party. Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili stated this in an interview with Newsweek.

He cited the example of Moldova, where US sanctions against the local oligarch Plahotniuc completely changed the political landscape of the country and brought pro-European forces to power.

“Ivanishvili openly opposed the new generation formed after the Rose Revolution, which grew up in freedom and opposed the law on foreign agents. And in general, Ivanishvili went against the genetic code of Georgians, who have always tried to join the West,” Saakashvili emphasized.

According to him, the law on foreign agents adopted by Georgian Dream brings Georgia closer to Russia and distances it from the West. Thus, the Kremlin will receive all possible benefits, and Georgia will be isolated and remain “in the power of Russia.”

“This time the scale of protests in Georgia is much larger, and we hope that the Western reaction will be more supportive of Georgian democracy. While everything is going in the right direction, the pressure should increase even more,” Mikheil Saakashvili summed up optimistically.