The issues that the “Lelo – Strong Georgia” coalition, Foreign Secretary Grigol Gegelia, and other politicians have been working on for months and years are now culminating in a logical outcome — the sanctioning of Bidzina Ivanishvili and the assignment of personal responsibility, said Irakli Kupradze, Secretary General of Lelo – Strong Georgia.

According to Kupradze, Ivanishvili and his regime will have to answer for all the crimes committed against Georgia’s democratic order.

“I want to congratulate the citizens of Georgia on the holiday of Saint George’s Day, which symbolizes the victory over evil.

Today, we saw a new legislative initiative supporting civil life from the U.S. Congress, called the ‘Friends of Georgia Act.’

The political party and coalition ‘Lelo – Strong Georgia’ has long been working — through multiple international visits to the U.S. and high-level political meetings — on a clear objective: to impose individual and personal responsibility on Ivanishvili and his regime, his clan, for the pressure and violence committed against the citizens of Georgia.

This includes physical retribution, the destruction of the judicial system, the persecution of state institutions, the persecution of the opposition, arrests of opposition leaders, criminal cases, and more. Ivanishvili and his regime must be held accountable for all these crimes against Georgia’s democratic structure.

The U.S. Congress’s passage of the ‘Friends of Georgia Act’ once again underscores this. We are working to tighten these personal sanctions even further and will achieve the necessary result — one that will force Ivanishvili to open negotiations, retreat, and prevent this country from being turned into a zone of Russian influence.

A key issue in both the ‘Friends of Georgia Act’ and in securing Georgia’s national security and economic development is the construction of the Anaklia port. This became one of the main drivers for the act’s adoption.

What the ‘Lelo – Strong Georgia’ coalition, Foreign Secretary Grigol Gegelia, and other politicians have been working on for months and years is now reaching its logical result — the sanctioning of Ivanishvili and the imposition of personal accountability,” Kupradze stated.