UK sanctions two Georgian TV channels over ‘Russian disinformation’

TBILISI, Feb 24 (Reuters) – Britain introduced sanctions against two pro-government television channels in Georgia on Tuesday, accusing them of spreading deliberately misleading information about Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The sanctions against Imedi and Postv are part of a new British package targeting 297 entities to mark the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Britain accused the channels of promoting false narratives about the war, including those that destabilise Ukraine or threaten its territorial integrity. It said Imedi in particular had spread falsehoods casting Ukraine’s government as “illegitimate” or a “puppet” of the West.

Imedi described the sanctions as “worthless” and said it would continue to serve the Georgian people.

Postv founder Shalva Ramishvili condemned the decision in a Facebook post and suggested London had acted “because we’re not saying that Ukraine is beating Russia.”

The sanctions include a freeze on assets and properties owned by the broadcasters in Britain and bar their owners from running other UK-based companies.

Once among the more democratic and pro-Western of the successor states to emerge from the Soviet Union, Georgia has turned increasingly authoritarian since the war in Ukraine began and has deepened economic ties with Russia.

Tbilisi has provided humanitarian aid to Ukraine but has not imposed sanctions on Russia, to whom it lost a short war in 2008.

Imedi until recently was owned by Irakli Rukhadze, a Georgian-born U.S. citizen based in Britain.

Rukhadze sold his shares in Imedi this month to a company called Prime Media Global, with the channel’s current management receiving half of the shares, according to a notice on the website of Hunnewell Partners, a private equity firm of which Rukhadze is a founding partner.

(Reporting by Lucy Papachristou, Editing by Timothy Heritage)