In December 2024, the Biden Treasury Department sanctioned Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire who made his fortune in Russia and whose party has governed Georgia since 2012. He holds no public office. He was the prime minister for one year, more than a decade ago. He hasn’t needed an office since.

I wrote in these pages last month that Washington sanctioned him and then made sure the checks still cleared. What has happened since is worse, and it is going to land on people who had nothing to do with any of it.

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On Aug. 7, the Trump Treasury Department sanctioned a company registered in Georgia for moving money on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Through the Georgian entity, an Iranian-born owner ran a cryptocurrency exchange that Treasury says took in more than $1 million in digital assets from Guard wallets and sent more than $2 million back. Georgia’s own national bank answered two days later that the firm had never applied for the authorization it needed and was therefore not something the bank regulated.

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

In other words, it had been operating outside the system entirely.

A week later, the European Union published the list of countries aligning with the three decisions on Iran it adopted in July — on Tehran’s nuclear and missile program, on its military support for Russia’s war in Ukraine and for armed groups in the Middle East, and on human rights abuses at home.

Nine aligned: every EU candidate in the Balkans, plus Moldova and Ukraine.

Georgia, an EU candidate itself, did not. Turkey and Serbia also stayed out, which tells you which room Tbilisi has chosen to stand in.

A ruling-party........

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