Ruling party official claims “campaign of lies” on transparency law in response to US Vice President’s letter

Kakha Kaladze, the Mayor of Tbilisi and the Secretary General of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday claimed the existence of a “campaign of lies” around the controversial domestic law on transparency of foreign influence, in response to a letter by the United States Vice President Kamala Harris who on Sunday expressed her concern over latest developments in Georgia.

In his remarks, Kaladze claimed “no argument” had been presented as to “why transparency might be bad”, in reference to the law that requires groups “considered to be an organisation pursuing the interests of a foreign power” - determined by more than 20 percent of their funding coming from abroad - to be registered in the public registry with the status and publicise their received funding.

We are also concerned by the fact that there is a campaign of lies going on all this time - this is a campaign of lies because no argument has been presented as to why transparency can be bad”, he said.

Kaladze stressed the ruling party was “taking specific steps” for the country’s European integration.

“For us, there are principles that we are not going to deviate from, and this is the interest of the country, [and of] its tomorrow. We will not give anyone the opportunity to have the same situation in the country that unfortunately is happening in Ukraine today”, he noted.

The development follows the ruling Georgian Dream party's adoption of the law and public protests and criticism by some of the country’s foreign partners against it.