It is important to continue working with the United States to sanction members of Bidzina Ivanishvili’s family so that Ivanishvili cannot evade sanctions by using his family members, said Tina Bokuchava, Chairwoman of the Unity - National Movement.

As she notes, the United States’ sanctions on Bidzina Ivanishvili “confirm that he is an agent of Russian influence in Georgia.”

According to Bokuchava, the assets of the Honorary Chairman of Georgian Dream have been completely devalued as a result of the sanctions.

“With yesterday’s decision on sanctions, the United States government confirmed that Ivanishvili serves Russian interests, Russian benefits, and that he is an agent of Russian influence in Georgia. This is precisely the legal basis for the American sanctions, which the US Treasury Department imposed by using the so-called OFAC mechanism, which is different from the global "Magnitsky Act" and is based precisely on the fact that Ivanishvili has Russian connections and works for Russian interests. Ivanishvili's assets have been frozen in America, he has been prohibited from legally selling any assets, be it real estate, or, for example, a painting. He will no longer be able to legally sell any assets, and in the case of the sale of such assets on the "black market", we understand very well that it does not even amount to 10% of the market value, which means that Ivanishvili's property has been completely devalued as a result of the sanctions. Ivanishvili will not be able to carry out any financial transactions in US dollars.

The sanctions include the so-called secondary effect, which means that any person or organization that is involved in Ivanishvili’s sanctioned transaction may become a target of American sanctions. If any Georgian bank allows any transaction for Ivanishvili, the bank itself may be sanctioned by the US. Violation of the sanctions regime by the National Bank or any commercial bank will deal a huge blow to the Georgian banking system and, accordingly, will completely collapse the Georgian economy, so I very much hope that the National Bank and any commercial bank will not take this huge risk against the Georgian state and citizens of Georgia.

Ivanishvili was also blocked from accessing hundreds of millions of dollars that were to be received by the Singapore court. Ivanishvili has been placed in total financial isolation by the United States, and no matter how much “cash” he has at his disposal, he will not be able to use any banking services in such total financial isolation. He will definitely not last long and it will be very difficult for him to operate with “cash,” Bokuchava said.