Ruling party officials “need USAID clarifications” over allegations of funding “unrest” in Georgia

Shalva Papuashvili, the Georgian Parliament Speaker, and Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday said they “needed clarification” from USAID following the allegations by the Georgian State Security Service earlier during the day over its alleged engagement in funding a training in Tbilisi for an “unrest” this fall. 

 

Calling a “black day” in history of the US aid to Georgia, Papuashvili said the USAID had also made “no comments” whether as a donor it had information over the release of “fake’ election data by ISFED NGO following 2020 elections, which he said had allowed the domestic opposition to spark provocations and unrest. 

 

Kobakhidze stressed it was “troubling when it turns out that all this has been funded by USAID, which stands for ‘America’s Aid’. I think this is not America’s help”. 

 

The Georgian State Security Service on Monday claimed the East-West Management Institute of USAID programme had invited Sinisa Sikman, Jelena Stojsic and Slobodan Djinovic from the Belgrade-based Canvas organisation in Tbilisi last month to “train” domestic NGOs and individuals for “planned unrest” this fall to “overthrow” the Government if the EU rejected Georgia’s EU candidacy. 

 

The body said the “stated goal” of the training between September 26-29 involved “nonviolent struggle” of culture people. However, it claimed a “large group” had been trained against “target groups”-  namely the Government, the Orthodox Church, the State Security Service and other agencies – and about “violent protests and resistance”.