The Georgian Dream party initially barred emigrants from participating in elections and has now extended these restrictions to their family members and to citizens who support themselves through remittances from relatives abroad, said Giorgi Sioridze, a member of the Lelo – Strong Georgia party.

“The Georgian Dream party is reaching new heights of authoritarianism and, following chemical poisoning, is now preparing to subject Georgian citizens to financial repression. First, emigrants were barred from participating in elections; now, through new repressive legislation, these restrictions have been extended to their family members and to citizens who rely on remittances from relatives abroad. In practice, this will allow the authorities to impose new financial sanctions and, if necessary, organize what amounts to a financial racket.

Under these changes, people will be banned from public and political activities, in clear violation of their constitutional rights. The same logic applies to entrepreneurs, whose rights may be violated through completely absurd regulations—where a person’s political activities or statements, even when unrelated to their business, could lead to sanctions.

We have not seen such absurdity before, although the Georgian Dream party often manages to surprise us with initiatives of this kind. This approach also targets individuals employed by organizations that receive as little as 20% of their funding from abroad. All of this is a continuation of the draconian legislation that our party has already appealed to the Constitutional Court, particularly laws restricting individuals’ personal political activities.

We intend to challenge this new repressive legislation in the Constitutional Court at the national level, even though we have no illusions about the outcome there. At the same time, we will fight these attempts by Georgian Dream—the successor to Soviet-style governance—at the international court level as well,” Sioridze said.