Georgia Accuses USAID of Funding Organizations That Destabilize the Situation

Georgian non-governmental organizations (NGOs), often funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), have been and remain involved in attempts to destabilize the situation in the country.

As reported by Baku.ws citing TASS, this was announced to journalists by the Prime Minister of the republic, Irakli Kobakhidze.

"In Georgia, there are the wealthiest NGOs that were directly used for revolution in Georgia. This process continues today. This is a kind of continuation of the process that began earlier," said Kobakhidze.

As an example, the head of the Georgian government cited the Georgian non-governmental organization "International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy" (ISFED), which is also funded by USAID. Kobakhidze claims that during the 2020 parliamentary elections, this organization falsified the results of parallel vote counting, which was supposed to provoke unrest in society.

"You can see how processes are developing now. At the forefront of revolutionary attempts are foreign-funded NGOs, organizations that receive funding from USAID, NED (National Endowment for Democracy - ed.). They are now openly criticized by the new American administration as well," he emphasized.

In this context, Kobakhidze touched upon the ruling party "Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia" initiative to develop and adopt a new foreign agents law, which will be analogous to the American FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act). According to him, every cent that enters the country should be transparent for Georgian society so that no one can mislead the Georgian people.

The Prime Minister also stated that foreign ambassadors have already stopped interfering in the republic's internal affairs.

"There are specific ambassadors who follow the instructions of the Deep State. This must end once and for all in our country. Thank God, compared to previous years, today no one has the opportunity to grossly interfere in our internal affairs. Laws are written in the Parliament of Georgia, laws are implemented in the Government of Georgia," Kobakhidze told journalists.

He did not specify which ambassadors interfered in the country's internal affairs, however, Georgian Parliament Vice-Speaker Tea Tsulukiani said in an interview with Georgian TV channel Rustavi 2 on Wednesday that when she held the position of Minister of Justice, and later headed the Ministry of Culture, Western ambassadors would come to her, asking about her work and decisions regarding certain individuals. Tsulukiani also did not name the ambassadors but said they were not American diplomats.