The speaker of the Parliament of Georgia commented on the visa restrictions imposed by the US on senior officials of the ruling Georgian Dream party, reports SOVA.

Shalva Papuashvili accused US President Joe Biden's administration of deteriorating US relations with Georgia.

"This administration lost the [recent US presidential] elections, its mandate is coming to an end, but still, on behalf of the American people, they are destroying relations with such an important partner as Georgia, and that is, of course, very worrying," Papuashvili said.

Moreover, he stated that democracy in the US is not better than in Georgia. And he recalled the times of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili when, despite the "virtual destruction of independent media and business racketeering at the level of the state system," Washington did not impose any sanctions on Georgia.

"Due to these factors, the position of the outgoing American administration is incomprehensible and meaningless," said the speaker of the Georgian legislature.

The US State Department has announced the introduction of additional measures within the framework of its US visa restriction policy, and these additional measures prohibit issuing US visas to those accountable for undermining democracy in Georgia.