The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has officially condemned what it describes as the Georgian Dream government’s crackdown on civil society, independent media and its political opponents.

On June 30, the Foreign Office formally summoned Georgia’s chargé d’affaires in London, George Saganelidze, to protest the deteriorating political situation in the South Caucasus republic.

According to an official statement from an FCDO spokesperson, during the meeting with Saganelidze a senior official “made clear the UK’s firm opposition to Georgia’s increasingly harmful trajectory” and denounced “false claims and public attacks” made by GD against the UK and its other international partners.

The FCDO spokesperson warned that the UK government “would not hesitate to consider further action should Georgia not return to respecting and upholding democracy, freedoms and human rights”.

As reported by bne IntelliNews, in the last two weeks the Georgian authorities have sentenced seven pro-Western opposition leaders to months-long prison sentences, the latest of them Nika Gvaramia of the Coalition for Change.

The politicians are charged with defying the summons of a commission launched by the GD parliament to probe officials of the former-ruling United National Movement.

Following Georgia’s contested October 2024 election, in which GD claimed a fourth term in power amid mass fraud allegations, the opposition declared their non-recognition of the newly elected GD government and boycotted the parliament.

Their subsequent refusal to appear before the parliamentary commission reflects their position that the incumbent GD government is illegitimate.

The FCDO spokesperson highlighted how GD’s detention of its political opponents was “incompatible” with Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration aspirations, which are supported by the majority of the South Caucasus republic.

“The imprisonment of prominent opposition leaders is the latest attempt by the Georgian government to crack down on freedoms and stifle dissent,” the spokesperson noted.

The UK sanctioned several high-ranking GD members in December 2024 following violent police crackdowns on pro-European protesters in Tbilisi.

Among these were the then interior minister Vakhtang Gomelauri, who resigned his post in late May, and prosecutor general Giorgi Gabitashvili, who in early June also left his post.