Co-chairman of the European Council on Foreign Relations and former Prime Minister of Sweden Carl Bildt commented on the speech of the billionaire, founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili at a rally in Tbilisi in support of the law on foreign agents.
“The speech of Georgian leader Ivanishvili this evening shows that he heads a regime that is alien to the values and interests of the EU. Anyone who doubts this should read the speech,” Bildt said.
In his speech, Ivanishvili criticized the “global war party” – UNM – saying that Saakashvili’s party had failed to turn Georgia into the territory of a “second front”.
According to Ivanishvili, “Georgia and Ukraine are cannon fodder for the ‘global war party’.” He noted that “despite all efforts, they could not turn Georgia into a second front, which they would have easily achieved in the conditions of the return of agents to the Georgian government.”
“The whole truth” about the law on foreign agents is that non-transparent funding of NGOs is the main tool that allows the leadership of Georgia to be appointed from the outside. These amounts that are allocated to NGOs have nothing to do with assistance, and on the contrary, their only goal is to take away sovereignty from Georgia,” the speaker said.
In addition to Ivanishvili, party chairman Irakli Garibashvili, Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze and the country's Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze spoke at the demonstration. The latter called on the European Union to begin negotiations with Georgia on joining it before the end of the year.
The day before, in Tbilisi, the Georgian authorities organized a rally in support of the law on foreign agents, as opposed to the large-scale action that took place these days against the adoption of this bill. The pro-government rally was reportedly attended by about one hundred thousand people. The opposition calls the sensational bill a “Russian law,” copying a similar Russian initiative. Among the participants of the action were many employees of budgetary organizations. The country's president, Salome Zurabishvili, said that the authorities brought participants to the rally by bus.
The Georgian parliament is currently considering a bill “On Transparency of Foreign Influence,” which would require non-profit organizations and media outlets receiving foreign funding to register as “organizations pursuing the interests of foreign power” and submit an annual financial declaration.
