Georgian PM says country will “calm down as soon as polarisation, radicalism are no longer financed from outside”

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Wednesday told Rustavi2 channel the country would “calm down as soon as “artificial polarisation and radicalism are no longer financed from outside through specific organisations”.

He alleged there was a “closed circle of polarisation” that “hinders the development” of the country, adding external financing of political parties was “prohibited in all countries” as it was “absolutely unconstitutional”.

The PM said the case of the Droa opposition party, which was being “unconstitutionally and illegally” financed by one of the European funds, was an “example of the lack of transparency of political funding” where “polarisation” was “financed from outside”, adding  the party's foreign funding had been “discovered by chance” after its leader Elene Khoshtaria “accidentally mentioned” it in one of her social media posts.

"Not only did they finance the party, they directly financed the election campaign of the Droa party, which was an absolutely unconstitutional event. A fake NGO was created - in fact it was a copy of the party Droa - and was financed directly from a fund connected to the European Union. As soon as we ensured that this was made public and the information about the funding - that is, the same polarisation, radicalism - immediately became public, the European Endowment for Democracy [an organisation established by the European Union] stopped funding Droa”, the PM noted.

In comments on the controversial bill on transparency of foreign influence, adopted by the Parliament in May and requiring 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, he said the “main problem” was created by “large NGOs”, as they “appeared on the political stage when they demand resignation” of the Government.

The PM also commented on the study conducted by the ruling Georgian Dream party last week for establishing “levels of transparency” within domestic NGOs, saying  it was “an absolute lie” that finances of NGOs were transparent, as “detailed information” was “not declared anywhere - neither on the website, nor to the Ministry of Finance”. 

“[M]ost of the largest organisations do not disclose their finances at all. At most, specific, individual organisations may have the most general information about the projects, but what the funds are spent on within the framework of this project is not shown at all. If it is written somewhere that five million is allocated for strengthening something, but it does not give any information”, he claimed.

“Today, when NGOs have become a part of politics in Georgia, they are the most polarising political entities in Georgia, [but] they do not even want to make their finances public. Of course, this cannot have any explanation except one, that someone wants to finance another attempt of revolutions in the country with dark money, and of course we cannot allow that”,  he added.

Kobakhidze claimed transparency would “ultimately insure the risks related to state security”.