PM Kobakhidze: foreign funding was aimed at supporting revolutionary scenarios in Georgia

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Friday claimed large amounts of foreign funding had entered Georgia to support “revolutionary scenarios,” adding that the government’s transparency law merely requires NGOs to submit annual financial reports.

In an interview with TRT World, Kobakhidze said that Georgia’s Law on Transparency, adopted two years ago, differed from the recently passed FARA-type law, which he described as “a direct copy of the American model.”

“The only obligation under this law is annual financial reporting by non-governmental organizations to state institutions - that’s all,” Kobakhidze said.

According to him, significant amounts of money had been flowing into Georgia from various sources, aimed at promoting revolutionary scenarios in the country.

“We have seen that large amounts of funding were entering Georgia from different sources, intended solely to encourage revolutionary processes,” the Prime Minister said. “We are pleased that the Trump administration has now confirmed the existence of such negative practices through USAID and other institutions, and that President Donald Trump’s administration has completely shut down these organizations in the United States.”

Kobakhidze added that after Georgia faced criticism over the transparency law, the government replicated the American Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) to demonstrate parity.

“What we later did, after hearing criticism of our transparency law, was to copy the U.S. FARA law - it’s an exact replica. But they still criticize it, which is truly amusing for us - simply laughable,” Kobakhidze said.