Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have imposed travel restrictions on Georgian officials — including Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili and Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri — for cracking down on protesters.

All three Baltic states imposed the travel restrictions on Monday, having earlier announced their intent to enact sanctions the day prior.

Both Lithuania and Estonia sanctioned 11 officials including Georgian Dream founder and honorary chair Bidzina Ivanishvili and Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri, as well as Gomelauri’s four deputies, Shalva Bedoidze, Giorgi Butkhuzi, Aleksandre Darakhvelidze, and Ioseb Chelidze. 

They also sanctioned Zviad ‘Khareba’ Kharazishvili, the head of the Special Tasks Department, the agency responsible for the riot police, and his deputies, Mileri Lagazauri and Mirza Kezevadze. 

Teimuraz Kupatadze, the chief of the Criminal Police Department, and Vaja Siradze, the Patrol Police Department director, were also on the list.

Latvia sanctioned 13 Georgian nationals indefinitely, but has not published a list of names, unlike Estonia and Lithuania.

In its statement on Monday, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry said that they were banning the Georgian officials from entering Lithuania for five years, citing ‘brutal crackdowns on protesters, violations of human rights, and abuse of the rule of law’.

Acting Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said that Moscow was ‘not interested in a “happy ending of the story” for Georgia, but the Baltic states support the civil society in this Caucasus country because a common goal unites us’.

Canada has also announced that they will follow suit with sanctions, with Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly stating they will ‘sanction key individuals and also businesses [and] entities that are involved either in human rights violations or corruptions, based on our own sanctions regime’. 

‘You will hear more from me in the coming days regarding this issue’, Joly said during a joint press briefing with the foreign ministers of the Baltic states. 

The US in September sanctioned four Georgian nationals — including Special Tasks Department chief Khazarashvili and his deputy, Lagazauri — for ‘undermining and suppressing the freedom of peaceful assembly in Georgia. They have additionally imposed travel sanctions on 60 others, including senior government officials.’

Washington has not published a list of Georgians on whom they have imposed travel bans.