Ex-Deputy FM slams Georgian PM for ‘hypocrisy’ over US aid criticism

Former Deputy Foreign Minister of Georgia under the United National Movement Government, Sergi Kapanadze, on Monday criticized Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze for his recent letter to US President Donald Trump, in which the official questioned the nature of American financial assistance to Georgia. 

Kobakhidze claimed that funds provided through the US Embassy, USAID, NED, the Soros Foundation, and other channels were allegedly being used to promote "radicalism" rather than genuine development.

Kapanadze, who claimed to have a shared history with Kobakhidze as a beneficiary of Soros Foundation funding, said 'the author of this letter himself was a Soros Foundation scholar. Along with me, that's why I know. We used to go on business trips together with the money from the Soros program, as part of the university program, and together we developed educational programs at Tbilisi State University. We even took pictures together. At the time, he did not say [then] that the money was problematic," Kapanadze wrote.

Before his political career, Kobakhidze served as the Regional Coordinator of the Public Education Project at USAID and later worked as an expert and manager for local self-government and regional development projects under the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). His tenure with USAID and UNDP spanned nine years.

Additionally, from 2011 to 2012, Kobakhidze was a member of the Expert Committee of the Human Rights and Rule of Law Program at the Open Society Foundation – Georgia, a program also funded by the Soros Foundation.