Georgian Dream MP accuses opposition groups of fighting over foreign funding

Georgian Dream MP Tengiz Sharmanashvili has accused opposition groups in Georgia of competing against one another for limited foreign funding, claiming that rivalry over financial support is driving internal conflicts within the opposition.

Sharmanashvili alleged that opposition parties were seeking to persuade their foreign backers that rival groups were ineffective or politically compromised in order to secure funding for themselves.

“Since money can no longer come in as freely and without control from USAID and similar organisations, and funding from various foundations is also more limited, they have started fighting among themselves,” Sharmanashvili said.

According to him, opposition figures are effectively trying to convince donors to support them instead of their political rivals.

“They want to tell their patrons: ‘Do not give the money to them. That person is compromised, incapable of achieving anything and you should expect nothing from them. I am the main opposition, so give the money to me,’” he said.

Sharmanashvili claimed that competition over funding had become so intense that opposition groups were prepared to discredit one another and release compromising information against their rivals.

“They hate those competing with them for this money even more than they hate us,” he said. “They occasionally attack us, but their main competitors are each other because they know that I am not competing for that money.”

The Georgian Dream MP said opposition groups would go to considerable lengths to weaken one another, including by making both genuine and false allegations.

“The opposition will do anything to bring each other down,” Sharmanashvili said. “In some cases they will tell the truth, and it appears that much of what is being said about the movement of this money may indeed be true. In other cases, they will make accusations simply to eliminate their rivals and establish themselves as the main opposition force.”

He argued that such political competition was aimed at securing the support of foreign sponsors rather than winning the backing of Georgian voters.

“They are not doing this for the Georgian people. They do not even work with the Georgian public. All of this is being done for their patrons,” Sharmanashvili said.