Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. WICKER. Mr. President, I rise tonight to make a simple but important point on behalf of the brave, freedom-loving citizens of the Republic of Georgia. It is time for the United States to stand alongside the brave nation of Georgia, the citizens of which went to the polls recently and voted to elect their own leadership.
It is time to impose heavy sanctions on the individuals and institutions now trying to thwart the democratic will of the people of the Republic of Georgia.
Now is the time to act. This is the 20th of December 2024. We don't need to act in mid-January. We need to act now while the people of Georgia are taking to the freezing streets in towns like Tbilisi and elsewhere to exercise their right to protest.
Now, here is what has happened--and it is such a familiar story, Mr. President. The Georgian people recently went to the polls, as really is the right of all mankind according to our Declaration of Independence. And the Georgian people rejected the Georgian Dream Party, which is really more and more becoming an arm of Vladimir Putin's Russian dictatorship.
The Georgian people, when they voted, rejected Bidzina Ivanishvili, the pro-Russian oligarch behind the party. This is similar to what other free voters have done in other countries around in that area--a decade or so ago in the Republic of Ukraine, in the recent Romanian elections.
It is happening also in Moldova. The people there do not wish to be under the thumb of a reincarnation of the Soviet Union under Vladimir Putin's dictatorship. And so they voted against the Georgian Dream Party, but the Georgian Dream Party in charge of the election machinery has tried to rig the election. And so the people of Georgia have risen up in response. And the Georgian Dream government, an arm of the Putin Russian Government, has responded in tyrannical fashion. The Georgian Dream Party has worked to overthrow the will of the voters and has marshalled the power of the police to crack down violently on peaceful protest.
In a number of days, Mr. President, the Georgian Dream Party could actually forcibly remove the democratically elected President of Georgia from power.
Now, the Biden administration has taken baby steps, long overdue, and I wish they would be more forceful. Our American administration has now publicly sanctioned two individuals. The State and Treasury Departments have sanctioned a senior ministry official and the Georgia Minister of Internal Affairs.
Now, what do the sanctions involve? They involve blocking the offending officials of the Georgian Dream Party from transactions in American banks. We can do that. They have frozen any assets these Russian puppets have owned in the United States and revoked any visas they have for our country. And I applaud the administration for these steps, but they could do so much more.
Of course, in response, the Georgian Dream Prime Minister Kobakhidze announced that he would decorate these two sanctioned Russian puppets and give them state honors in their roles for quashing the protests.
This is what is going on around the world. This is how tyrants act. Georgian Dream has thumbed its nose, of course, at our somewhat half- hearted measures. And so it is time, I would say, for the United States to demonstrate more decisive and timely resolve. Half measures are the wrong message at this point. So I call on the Biden administration to sanction the leaders of Georgian Dream, including Bidzina Ivanishvili, Kakha Kaladze, and Prime Minister Kobakhidze.
The Republic of Georgia is the home of freedom-loving people. They were once under the thumb of Moscow, and they do not wish to go back. Vladimir Putin would like to have Georgia back in its orbit, just like they would like to have Moldova back in their orbit, just like they even wish to have Romania and certainly Ukraine. And Vladimir Putin is willing to rig elections to have his agents brutally repress the peaceful protests that are going on.
Now, I admire these Georgian freedom fighters. They strongly oppose Putin's interference; and we ought to stand with them. I call on the State Department and the Biden administration in the last month of office to stand tall with the freedom-loving Georgian people. We must continue our legacy of cooperation and shared democratic values with the Republic of Georgia.
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