We call on the government to impose new sanctions on Georgian Dream officials, as well as Georgian kleptocrats and media organizations spreading disinformation — UK Parliament report

The United Kingdom and the European Union support the desire of the Georgian people to transition to a Western-style liberal democracy with the potential to join both NATO and the EU. Meanwhile, Russia is firmly determined to prevent its neighboring country from joining NATO and supports the occupied enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, according to the report “Diplomacy of Disinformation: How Malign Actors Seek to Undermine Democracy”, published by the UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

According to the document, Russia’s desire to obstruct Georgia’s integration with the West underlies the tensions that led to the Russia–Georgia war, which began on August 7, 2008, and to the disputed 2024 elections.

“On October 26, 2024, Georgia held elections. According to the official election results, the ruling party Georgian Dream won with a 54% lead, while exit polls showed the opposition holding a 10% advantage over Georgian Dream. Georgia’s fifth president, Salome Zourabichvili, and opposition parties refused to recognize the results, while elected MPs refused to take up their seats in parliament. The disputed results triggered large-scale protests against the Georgian Dream government. Salome Zourabichvili told the Committee that the elections were targeted by foreign and domestic information manipulation and interference,” the report states.

The document emphasizes that there was “a clear large-scale and sophisticated manipulation operation, evidently inspired and supported by Russians and Russian methods.”

“Having bypassed the voice of the opposition, Georgian Dream suspended EU accession talks, handed strategic infrastructure projects to Chinese firms, and repeated pro-Russian, anti-Western narratives. Salome Zourabichvili explained that the Georgian Dream government is attempting to suppress civil society and non-governmental organizations, independent media, and legitimate protest ‘using not only Russian or Belarusian laws and methods, but also their rhetoric and propaganda.’ This includes the ‘foreign agents registration law,’ which requires NGOs and independent media receiving more than 20% of their funding from foreign donors to register as organizations carrying the interests of a foreign state,” the report notes.

The document says that Bidzina Ivanishvili is the founder of the Georgian Dream party, a billionaire who accumulated his wealth in post-Soviet Russia in the 1990s and returned to Georgia in 2003.

“Bidzina Ivanishvili became Prime Minister of Georgia in 2012 and served for one year before formally stepping away from active politics. Bidzina Ivanishvili repeated Russian anti-Western narratives, including the claim that the West is trying to use Georgia to open a ‘second front’ in the conflict in Ukraine through the ‘global war party.’ Bidzina Ivanishvili was sanctioned by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on December 27, 2024, for his role in ‘undermining Georgia’s democratic and Euro-Atlantic future for the benefit of the Russian Federation.’ On February 13, 2025, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on EU member states to freeze assets and impose personal sanctions on Bidzina Ivanishvili, his family, senior Georgian Dream officials, enablers in business and state structures, and propagandists,” the document states.

According to the report, the Committee requested clarification from Stephen Doughty, Minister of State for Europe, North America and Overseas Territories, regarding what assistance the UK Government would provide to support civil society organizations in Georgia, combat disinformation, and impose sanctions on representatives of the Georgian Dream party in line with allies such as the United States and the European Union.

“In response, the Minister stressed that ‘the UK’s support for civil society and independent media has long been a core pillar of our partnership with Georgia’ and that it had funded ‘programmatic work aimed at supporting independent media and non-profit organizations that promote access to impartial information.’ However, Salome Zourabichvili rejected the notion that the West had helped counter Russian interference and stated: ‘We received no support at all. There was no clear strategy to fight Russia’s strategy.’

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) recently published a report under the Moscow Mechanism on ongoing developments concerning human rights and fundamental freedoms in Georgia. The report concludes that since the spring of 2024, Georgia has experienced ‘democratic backsliding.’ It notes that the Georgian Dream government has ‘progressively restricted’ freedom of speech, expression, and assembly through the introduction of ‘legislation targeting civil society, the political opposition, independent media, and the LGBT+ community.’ The report provides 46 recommendations to the Georgian authorities for addressing the challenges, including conducting an independent and impartial investigation into alleged irregularities during the 2024 parliamentary elections,” the report says.

According to the document, the Committee is deeply concerned about the deterioration of democracy in Georgia.

“The Committee is deeply concerned about the deterioration of democracy in Georgia, which, on its current trajectory, will result in an autocracy firmly embedded within Russia’s sphere of influence, similar to Belarus. We condemn the actions of the Georgian Dream government in suspending EU accession talks, silencing opposition voices, restricting legitimate protest, and spreading disinformation. These actions replicate the Russian playbook and indicate coordination between Tbilisi and Moscow. We support the actions already taken by the UK Government in sanctioning Georgian officials responsible for facilitating human rights abuses in response to legitimate protests.

We call on the Government to impose new targeted financial and travel sanctions on those Georgian Dream officials who support the ‘foreign agents registration law,’ as well as on Georgian kleptocrats and those Georgian media organizations that spread disinformation,” the report states.