Baltics sanction Georgian officials over protests crackdown

(ANSA-AFP) - VILNIUS, DEC 3 - Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia said on Monday they would bar Georgian officials from entry over the country's crackdown on mass protests against shelving European Union membership talks. Tens of thousands of people have taken part in four straight nights of protests in Georgian cities, with the police using tear gas and water cannon to disperse some rallies. Lithuania and Estonia posted a list of 11 sanctioned officials on X, with Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis saying they were "denied entry into Lithuania due to their responsibility for human rights abuses".
    The list included Georgian Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri and Georgian tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili, widely regarded as the country's most powerful person though without any official government position. (ANSA-AFP).