Georgian Dream Billionaire Ivanishvili Is Sanctioned by US

The US Treasury sanctioned Georgian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder of Georgian Dream, the political party that has turned away from the West in favor of closer ties with Russia.

The US designated Ivanishvili “for undermining the democratic and Euro-Atlantic future of Georgia for the benefit of the Russian Federation,” Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a statement Friday. The tycoon and Georgian Dream “have eroded democratic institutions, enabled human rights abuses and curbed the exercise of fundamental freedoms,” it said.

Bidzina Ivanishvili

Photographer: Giorgi Arjevanidze/AFP/Getty Images

The party won parliamentary elections in October, although the opposition didn’t recognize the outcome. Georgian Dream ...