UK Imposes Sanctions on Georgian Television Channels, Reports JAMnews

The United Kingdom imposed sanctions on two Georgian television companies, TV Imedi and POSTV, under its Russia sanctions regime on February 24. The move marks a significant escalation in international scrutiny of media outlets allegedly spreading pro-Russian narratives about the conflict in Ukraine.

The comprehensive sanctions package includes asset freezes, trust service restrictions, and director disqualification orders. These measures effectively cut the broadcasters off from the UK financial system and severely limit their ability to conduct business with British entities or in territories under British jurisdiction.

According to the British government, these broadcasters regularly promoted narratives undermining Ukraine’s legitimacy. The UK Foreign Office stated there were “reasonable grounds to suspect that TV Imedi and POSTV deliberately spread misleading information about Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, contributing to Ukraine’s destabilization and threatening its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

The sanctioned broadcasters allegedly promoted several anti-Ukrainian narratives, including claims that Ukrainian authorities and President Volodymyr Zelensky are illegitimate, that Ukraine is merely a “puppet of the West,” that the country is fundamentally corrupt, and that Ukraine and Western countries are attempting to destabilize Georgia.

Far from being merely symbolic, these sanctions create a comprehensive legal framework designed to isolate the targeted companies from the UK’s financial and business ecosystem. Each component of the sanctions package functions independently while collectively establishing what amounts to a financial and operational blockade.

The asset freeze automatically restricts access to any funds or economic resources—including bank accounts, property, and shares—held by the broadcasters within UK jurisdiction. British financial institutions must cease providing services to these companies, and UK citizens and businesses are prohibited from entering financial or commercial relationships with them.

The director disqualification component further restricts the broadcasters’ operations by prohibiting specific individuals from holding senior management positions. This ban applies not only to UK nationals managing the sanctioned companies but also prevents the sanctioned directors themselves from holding comparable positions in any business connected to UK law. Violating these restrictions constitutes a criminal offense.

The prohibition on trust services aims to prevent asset concealment through UK-based legal structures. Trusts—legal arrangements where one party manages assets on behalf of another—are frequently used in international finance for asset structuring and tax planning. The sanctions ban UK-based entities, including lawyers, accountants, and financial institutions, from creating or managing trusts for the sanctioned broadcasters, effectively closing a common loophole for sanctions evasion.

What gives these sanctions particular bite is their geographic reach. They apply not just within the United Kingdom itself but across British overseas territories—jurisdictions that include some of the world’s most prominent offshore financial centers, such as the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, and Bermuda. The measures also extend to Gibraltar, a key European financial hub.

The inclusion of these jurisdictions significantly amplifies the sanctions’ impact. Thousands of companies and trust structures serving global capital operate in these territories. When London imposes sanctions, their effects extend well beyond the geographic borders of the British Isles, creating a much wider sphere of enforcement.

This action comes amid growing concerns about Russian influence operations in Georgia, a country that has experienced a complex relationship with both Russia and Western institutions in recent years. Media freedom advocates will likely watch closely to see if these sanctions achieve their intended purpose of countering disinformation or whether they might have unintended consequences for press freedom in the region.

The UK government’s decision represents a notable escalation in the use of sanctions to combat what it perceives as information warfare in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, signaling that Western powers are increasingly targeting not just military and economic dimensions of the conflict but also its information aspects.