U.S. Senate Panel Advances Sanctions Bill as Georgia’s Ruling Party Seeks to Ban Opposition

The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee has approved the MEGOBARI Act, a bipartisan bill aimed at supporting democracy in Georgia and imposing potential sanctions on the country’s leadership, Orda.kz reports.

According to Ekho Kavkaza, Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who introduced the bill, said:

We have approved the MEGOBARI Act. This is a clear signal to the Georgian people — we support their efforts to preserve their democratic future.

The bill now heads to the full Senate for a vote. If passed, it will return to the House of Representatives for final approval before being signed into law by the president.

The MEGOBARI Act outlines wide-ranging sanctions against Georgia’s leadership if it continues down its current path. 

However, it also offers incentives: a liberalized visa regime, expanded economic cooperation, and a broad security support package — provided the Georgian government recommits to democratic principles and halts its anti-Western rhetoric.

Meanwhile, in Georgia, the ruling Georgian Dream party has announced plans to seek a constitutional ban on opposition parties, according to NewsGeorgia.

Executive Secretary Mamuka Mdinaradze stated that the party would petition the Constitutional Court to declare the United National Movement (UNM) — the party founded by ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili — and its allied groups unconstitutional.

The ruling party has reportedly labeled all parties that cleared the threshold in the 2024 parliamentary elections as "satellites" of the UNM. This includes former President Salome Zourabichvili and several civil society organizations.

Mdinaradze stated that, if successful, the legal challenge would bar these parties from participating in future elections. Lawmakers have already drafted legislation to ban any successor parties that might emerge preemptively.

This will safeguard the Georgian state and its constitutional order. These parties will be declared anti-Georgian, unconstitutional, and criminal, and their activities will be prohibited,Mdinaradze said.