GD Accuses US Embassy, USAID, NED, EED, Foreign-Funded CSOs of Coordinated Work Against Georgia
Georgian Dream had doubled down on its attacks against the U.S. Embassy in Georgia, USAID, and “other actors” – foreign donors and their local recipient civil society organizations (CSOs), accusing them of “coordinated work against the Georgian people and state,” as GD Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze put it.
“In Georgia, the [U.S.] Embassy and USAID, just like the NED and other institutions, acted in a coordinated manner against the Georgian people and the Georgian state,” GD Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze told journalists in Kazakhstan, where he is on an official visit.
He added, “We have very high hopes that under the new [U.S.] administration, the first thing that will change is the attitude of the US embassy towards the Georgian people and the Georgian state and that this ugly coordination that has existed between the embassy, USAID, NED, and other actors will end.”
On February 6 GD parliamentary majority leader Mamuka Mdinaradze announced the adoption of more restrictive laws targeting civil society organizations and the repressive measures against media. This includes the replacement of the existing law on Foreign Agents by what he claimed would be a new law “identical” to the American Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Previously, the GD insisted that the Foreign Agents Law was also identical to FARA, which was dispelled by the various analyses of the two laws.
The attacks by GD officials against the U.S. Embassy and USAID, as well as other U.S. and EU donor organizations and their local recipient CSOs and media, intensified after newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump announced the global suspension of all foreign aid for 90 days with an executive order stating that the American foreign aid industry and bureaucracy “serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries.”
Trump’s decision was embraced by GD leaders. The speaker of Georgia’s one-party parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, has been especially active in slamming Western donors. He claimed that Trump’s decision “has confirmed” what the party has been saying, that “the United States’ foreign aid has been used by some organizations to pursue their influence in other countries.” He added that “to do this, they have used various organizations on the ground, which were founded precisely for this purpose, to serve the pursuit of foreign interests.”
In a social media post, Papuashvili attacked the European Endowment for Democracy (EED), a European grant-making organization, demanding: “Brussels must immediately publish what EED funds in Georgia,” adding, “After the new U.S. administration exposed the use of American people’s money for malign political purposes, society has a legitimate interest in the work of this fund.
The announcement of further restrictive legislation targeting civil society and the media comes as the GD government is challenged by non-stop nationwide protests in support of pro-EU and pro-Western foreign policy, demanding new elections and the release of the detained protesters.
“In Georgia, there are the NGOs, the rich NGOs that have been directly used for staging the revolution and this process is ongoing today as well,” GD PM Kobakhidze said.
Kobakhidze repeated the GD accusations that the Western donors supporting independent media and civil society are attempting revolution in the country: “It is precisely the foreign-funded NGOs that are at the avant-garde of any attempt at a revolution: these are the U.S.-funded NGOs, USAID, NED, which are already being openly criticized by the new U.S. administration, and also the EU affiliated foundations, for example, the EED-funded NGOs.”
“All this is a danger to Georgia’s sovereignty,” he claimed.
Also Read:
- 06/02/2025 – Watchdogs: Repressive Legislative Changes Announced by GD Threaten Fundamental Rights
- 05/02/2025 – President Zurabishvili: “Political Life in Georgia Has Ended,” Urges International Pressure on GD to Call Elections
- 05/02/2025 – GD Terminates Mandates of 49 Opposition MPs, Stages New Parliamentary Group Formation
- 04/02/2025 – Ombudsman Calls on GD Parliament not to Fast-Track Repressive Legislative Changes
- 30/12/2024 – GD Elected President Kavelashvili Signs Into Law Repressive Legislation
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