De facto sanctions against Mr. Bidzina Ivanishvili were already in effect for the sole reason that this person didn’t compromise the country’s national interests, today’s decision has not actually changed anything. Such a statement made today the Prime Minister of georgia, while commenting the desicion of the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to impose financial sanctions on Bidzina Ivanishvili.

“Mr. Bidzina Ivanishvili has been under de facto sanctions before and has been blackmailed for 3 years with almost formal sanctions. Now this basis for blackmail has also been removed. In fact, nothing has changed. The de facto sanctions were already in effect and these informal sanctions were in effect just because this person did not give up the national interests of this country.

You know what the challenges our country faced in 2022, what they demanded from the team, what they specifically demanded from Mr. Bidzina Ivanishvili, and precisely because he did not oppose the fundamental, key interests of our country, that is why they first imposed de facto sanctions and now, in the end, they have made a decision that has no substantive meaning.

On the contrary, this decision has finally taken away their blackmail tool. This is what the force we call the Global War Party has been doing for three years. I have great hope that everything will change in a different direction. However, in reality nothing has changed. I recently had a conversation with Mr. Bidzina Ivanishvili and his position is exactly the same. Nothing special. Three years, simply because Bidzina Ivanishvili served the interests of this country, he was under de facto sanctions. Now they have already implemented this formal sanction. Nothing special, in fact this is a reward for protecting the national interests of our country”, - said Irakli Kobakhidze.