TBILISI, October 3 – Georgian businessman and public figure Levan Vasadze has released an open letter, dated 20 September, claiming that British sanctions announced on 19 September led Georgian banks to restrict services not only to himself, but also to members of his family – and a wine company owned by his spouse, BPN reports.
Vasadze writes that the UK government published sanctions against him on its official website, describing him as a “Georgian politician and media magnate” sanctioned for spreading “pro-Russian disinformation” via media platforms. He rejects each part of that description, stating: “I am neither a Georgian politician, nor a media magnate, and I have never disseminated any ‘pro-Russian disinformation’.”
According to the letter, TBC Bank, which he notes is listed on the London Stock Exchange, blocked all accounts and cards belonging to him, his wife (the mother of eight children), his adult children, his sister, his 78-year-old widowed mother, and the accounts of a wine enterprise owned and managed by his spouse. Vasadze adds that Bank of Georgia, also listed in London, later asked that the wine company close all of its accounts, and he says other Georgian banks likewise restricted services.
Vasadze argues that such actions violate Georgian law. Citing the Constitution’s protection of citizens and guidance from the National Bank of Georgia adopted in 2023, he writes that international sanctions should not be applied to Georgian citizens absent a guilty verdict by a Georgian court, and that a similar approach applies to Georgian-registered legal entities in which sanctioned Georgian citizens hold shares.
He further states that he has never held government office or belonged to any political party. He recalls that in May 2021 he tried to enter politics by founding the public movement “Eri,” intended to become a party, but says he soon fell seriously ill with multiple myeloma and AL amyloidosis and underwent intensive treatment that forced him to withdraw from political activity. He says he has had no public interventions on social issues for more than a year and a half and should be considered a public figure, not a politician.
Publishing an open letter is a common way to address the public in Georgia, bringing only one party’s point of view, without including immediate responses from other concerned parties, such as the banks or Georgian or UK authorities, in this case.
