On Dec. 27, 2024, the Biden administration’s Treasury Department did two things, and only one of them made the news.

First, it sanctioned Bidzina Ivanishvili under Executive Order 14024 — the sanctions architecture built for the Russian Federation. In the U.S. government’s own assessment, Ivanishvili acted on behalf of — and for the benefit of — the Russian Federation while shaping Georgia’s political direction. Translate that from bureaucratese: my country’s de facto ruler works for Moscow.

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Second, the Treasury issued General License 116. The license authorizes U.S. persons to continue most transactions with companies that Ivanishvili owns or controls, as long as those companies are not on the sanctions list. In practice, the individual is frozen; the corporate network around him remains largely open for American business.

EMZARI GELASHVILI: GEORGIA IS DEMOLISHING ITS WESTERN FUTURE — ONE LANDMARK AT A TIME

The man was sanctioned. The empire was licensed.

That single day captures the entire Western approach to Georgia since the Soviet collapse: symbolic clarity followed by practical accommodation. We name the problem. Then we make sure the problem can still cash the checks.

The pattern is not new

I watched the first version of this logic destroy my country in real time. In the winter of 1991-1992, I stood on Rustaveli Avenue while Tengiz Kitovani’s forces shelled the Parliament. Russian units supplied the equipment and logistics. A Russian general later put it in writing. Stability first. Georgia second. It was not phrased that plainly at the time — diplomacy rarely is.

The second time, the method changed. No tanks. No shelling of the Parliament. Just capital — and patience, which turned out to be the cheaper weapon. Ivanishvili made his fortune in Russia in the 1990s, returned........

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