Britain, US sanction Georgian officials over crackdown on pro-EU protesters

By Felix Light, Muvija M

Britain and the U.S. on Thursday imposed sanctions on Georgian officials, including the interior minister, over a violent crackdown on pro-European Union protesters who have taken to the streets nightly since Tbilisi last month froze EU accession talks until 2028.

Britain's foreign ministry said it targeted five officials who it said were responsible for violent attacks against journalists and peaceful protesters, while the U.S. Treasury Department said it slapped sanctions on two officials it accused of overseeing a violent crackdown against protesters, journalists and opposition figures.

Georgia had been seen as one of the most democratic and pro-Western countries of the former Soviet Union, but critics say it is moving in an authoritarian and pro-Russian direction.

The ruling Georgian Dream party says it wants a democratic and pro-Western Georgia while maintaining pragmatic ties with neighbouring Russia, which ruled Georgia for 200 years until 1991.

Polls show EU accession is popular in Georgia. It is also written into the country's constitution.

The freeze on EU accession talks sparked protests and a crackdown that has seen more than 400 people arrested, including high-profile pro-EU opposition leaders and activists. Georgia's ombudsman has accused police and authorities of widespread brutality.

The government says more than 150 police officers have been injured in clashes with firework-throwing demonstrators pursuing a violent revolution.

The British government said in a statement that Britain's sanctions targeted senior figures in Georgia's interior ministry, which oversaw what London described as the Georgian police's disproportionate use of violence.

Among the five officials targeted are Georgia's interior minister, Vakhtang Gomelauri, and Zviad Khazarishvili, head of an interior ministry department accused of masterminding attacks.

Washington also targeted Gomelauri as well as Mirza Kezevadze, the deputy head of the interior ministry's Special Task Department. The U.S. Treasury accused the Special Task Department of responding to protests with disproportionate violence, including mass beatings, verbal abuse and threats of sexual violence, and of targeting journalists and political opposition leaders.

The move freezes any of their U.S. assets and generally bars Americans from dealing with them. Those that engage in certain activities with the sanctioned officials also risk being hit with punitive measures.

The U.S. previously sanctioned two of the officials Britain took action against on Thursday.

The EU has previously said the crackdown in Georgia merited sanctions, while countries including Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia have already imposed measures on senior Tbilisi officials and Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire ex-prime minister widely regarded as the country's paramount leader.

Russia has said it does not interfere in Georgia, though individual Russian officials have praised Georgian Dream.

Moscow and Tbilisi have had no formal diplomatic relations since Russia defeated Georgia in a five-day war in 2008.