Georgian Parliament Speaker: transparency law remains painful for those with harmful intentions toward country

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Monday said that the domestic transparency law remains particularly “painful” for those who have “harmful intentions” toward Georgia, arguing that strong reactions to the legislation expose foreign governments’ motives.

Papuashvili made the remarks after Levan Machavariani, the First Deputy Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party’s parliamentary faction, on Monday accused opposition parties, NGOs and activists of repeatedly attempting to destabilise Georgia and stage revolutions, claiming that their actions had been coordinated with foreign actors.

According to Papuashvili, a review of the chronology from the 2020 parliamentary elections to the present makes it easy to identify those behind actions he described as harmful activities stemming from opposition parties and NGOs.

“Let us look at at least six years of history, starting after the 2020 elections, and assess the role played by organizations funded from abroad. What role did the so-called parties play in attempts to create unrest in Georgia - parties that, instead of carrying out the will of their voters, are carrying out orders from abroad”, he said.

“In all these attempts to create unrest - starting with 2020 and the falsified parallel vote count - we showed a certain degree of restraint toward the foreigners and organizations that were funding ISFED, trying to prevent further escalation through our statements”, Papuashvili continued.

He said that in 2020, the Georgian Government still hoped that European organisations and certain governments, including the US administration at the time, would learn the lessons of 2020 and stop attempting to interfere in the will of the Georgian people. In 2024, however, he said they went even further, with ambassadors directly involved in the elections and directly funding partisan election campaigns.

“Let us recall the funding provided by the Danish Embassy, when an entire campaign was financed. Then we saw where the people they had funded ended up - they entered politics directly, with an NGO joining the political process with its entire staff, as well as the parties whose campaigns they had financed”, he said.

“So, this role is clear. That is precisely why the adoption of the ‘Transparency Law’ became necessary, because at the time these organizations, embassies and countries were hiding behind NGOs. They had created the impression among our citizens that these were Georgian organizations acting according to their own agendas, when in reality they were carrying out orders from abroad”, Papuashvili noted.

He emphasised that the same was true of the parallel vote count results, which were ordered by USAID, as well as the fact that during our meetings we were personally lied to and told that they knew nothing about it.

“That is precisely why the ‘Transparency Law’ was and remains painful for those who have harmful intentions toward Georgia from abroad. The law revealed who was actually behind all these harmful activities, who was behind the falsified parallel vote counts, who was behind attacks on the Georgian Orthodox Church, and who was behind LGBT propaganda”, he said.

“In reality, this is not a Georgian agenda; it is an agenda imposed from abroad. That is why we are seeing such strong reactions from abroad.It is a good test: those who react particularly strongly to the transparency law are the governments that have harmful intentions toward Georgia, and by doing so, they expose themselves”, Papuashvili concluded.