Ex-Pres Saakashvili calls on western allies to sanction Georgian banks

Georgia’s former president Mikheil Saakashvili has urged the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom to impose sanctions on Georgian banks, accusing them of supporting anti-democratic policies in the country.

In a post on social media on Tuesday, Saakashvili said the banking sector played a role in blocking Georgia’s path toward EU membership.

“My appeal is to the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom to sanction Georgian banks as participants in the dictatorship’s anti-democratic and anti-European policies,” he wrote.

Saakashvili claimed that banks “do not want Georgia to join the European Union,” arguing that integration would significantly reduce what he described as their “outrageous excessive profits.”