“People often think that sanctions are the only tool in our toolbox. Sanctions are one of the tools… When we talk about Georgia, if you look at the actions we’ve taken, we’ve been quite clear about the democratic backsliding that we’ve seen in Georgia. We’ve been clear in response to that. There’s been a fundamental review of the relationship between Georgia and the United States, and as part of that, we’ve already cut off $95 million in funding to the Georgian government because we have serious concerns about their actions…
We imposed visa restrictions on over 100 individuals who were responsible for or complicit in the undermining of Georgian democracy, and we suspended the U.S.-Georgia Strategic Partnership Mechanism. So, in response to a kind of question about what took so long, it’s not that we’ve been doing nothing all this time. We’ve been taking steps to make our concerns clear and really – and this is important – to give the Georgian government a chance to reverse course, right? We’ve made it clear that there was an alternative path available to them, a path that their people are calling for. And time and time again, when they were faced with a choice, they didn’t choose that path.
"So you've seen how we've tightened our response and we'll continue to tighten our response, including with additional sanctions. I won't say in advance what the nature of the sanctions will be. But before the end of our term, yes, we will impose additional sanctions on the government of Georgia."
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
