PM rejects opposition party founder's claim on NGO withdrawal from children's dental services

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Thursday rejected a statement by Badri Japaridze, one of the founders of the Lelo for Georgia opposition party, that said the Fair Trees Fund organisation would no longer support children's dental services in the western municipality of Oni, by calling the announcement “disgraceful”.

Kobakhidze called the statement a “lie” by alleging the Fund was not an independent non-governmental organisation but related to the party and “associated with protecting specific business interests”.

All of this shows the true face of these political parties as radical opposition parties”, he claimed.

The Fund on Wednesday issued a letter notifying the Oni City Hall about termination of their cooperation, saying it was compelled to end its partnership with the Mayor's office, launched last year, due to the recent enactment of the domestic law on transparency of foreign influence, which it said could “result in fines and financial challenges” for the organisation.

The law requires groups “considered to be an organisation pursuing the interests of a foreign power” to be registered in the public registry with the status and publicise their received funding.

The Fund also said they saw “no possibility for continued collaboration with Government entities” for a planned launch of a free dental clinic for children in Oni.

Following the Fund’s statement, Japaridze released a social media message saying the launch of the clinic and provision of free services was “not driven by the interests of a foreign influence” while the law would still have applied to the operation.

Due to the adoption of the [law] one of the projects being implemented by my Danish friends [of the Fund] has been stopped [...] The projects included building a children's dental clinic in Oni and providing free services. These efforts were not driven by the interests of a foreign influence. However, as per the law adopted by [the ruling] Georgian Dream, the Fund is now considered to be a carrier of interests of a foreign influence”, he said.

In further comments on the statement, Kobakhidze alleged “some people” had “said after the adoption of the transparency law that the country would ‘wake up in Russia’”, in reference to the characterisation of the law by its opponents as being inspired by “foreign agents” legislation in Russia, adding “we [still] woke up in Georgia, a developing country”.

The law was adopted by the Parliament earlier this month, with 83 MPs supporting and one voting against, on the backdrop of public protests and criticism by some of the country’s foreign partners.