US Weighs More Sanctions Against Georgia, Official Says

The Biden administration is considering imposing additional economic sanctions on Georgia in response to the country’s recent anti-democratic actions, a State Department official told a congressional panel July 23.

The administration is looking at all available tools “to hold individuals accountable in Georgia” for corruption, human rights violations and undermining democracy, said Joshua Huck, deputy assistant secretary for the State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. “I don’t have something to preview for you today because we don’t announce [such measures] in advance.”

The Georgian government’s concerning behavior includes passage in May of a Russian-style “foreign influence” law “designed to silence critical voices and cow Georgia’s vibrant civil society,” Huck testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee Subcommittee on Europe. The Georgian government has also “demonized civil society, permitted escalating violence and intimidation against civil society and opposition politicians, and issued disinformation and rhetorical attacks against the United States and European partners who have supported and assisted Georgia for decades.”

Steps the U.S. government has already taken against Georgia include imposing financial sanctions on Georgian-Russian oligarch Otar Partskhaladze in September for helping Russia influence Georgian society and politics (see 2309140031).

Democrats and Republicans in both houses of Congress have threatened to impose more sanctions against Georgia (see 2405130057 and 2405140073). The House Foreign Affairs Committee this month approved a bill that would sanction officials who undermine Georgian democracy (see 2407100058).

This week’s Europe Subcommittee hearing also touched on foreign investment. Huck said he shares lawmakers' concerns that a Chinese consortium received a contract in May to build a deep-sea port on Georgia’s Black Sea coast. He said U.S. officials have warned Georgian officials that doing business with China carries "strategic risk" as well as the possibility of economic coercion.

"It seems like a questionable decision to be engaging China as an economic partner when they are bankrolling Russia's invasion of Ukraine as well as the occupation of 20% of Georgia," Huck testified.

The administration also is concerned about some of the companies involved in the Chinese consortium, Huck said. One company has been designated by the U.S. for its ties to China's military-industrial complex, while another may be linked to corruption and fraud in earlier projects.