A special state fund will be created to finance Georgian non-governmental organizations registered in the "foreign agents" registry. This was announced by Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze at a government meeting.

According to the adopted law "On Transparency of Foreign Influence", the deadline for voluntary registration of NGOs and media outlets that receive more than 20% of their income from abroad expired on September 2. Fines are provided for failure to register.

According to Kobakhidze, "more than 450 non-governmental organizations, that is, a significant portion of organizations working with foreign funding, have applied to the Ministry of Justice."

"We have decided to establish a grant program for Georgian non-governmental organizations, which will be fully financed by Georgian taxpayers from the state budget of Georgia," said Irakli Kobakhidze.

He also added that "receiving foreign funding does not automatically mean implementing the negative interests of a foreign force." The first grant projects will be financed from January 2025. However, the head of the Cabinet did not announce the amount of funding.

Recall that on August 1, the law "On the transparency of foreign influence", initiated by the ruling party of Georgia, known as the law on "foreign agents", came into force. The Georgian opposition and Western countries compare it to similar Russian repressive legislation. The adoption of this law caused a wave of discontent in Georgian society and sharp criticism from the United States and the European Union, and also led to large-scale protests in Tbilisi.

Earlier, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili vetoed the law adopted in three readings, but her decision was not enough to prevent it from coming into force. The Georgian parliament managed to overcome the presidential ban by a majority vote.