Georgian PM: foreign funding of political activity violates sovereignty, Gov’t has constitutional duty to prevent it

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Friday said that funding political activities of Georgian citizens from foreign sources was violating state sovereignty and that his Government had a constitutional duty to prevent such interference.

In his remarks, Kobakhidze clarified that recent legislative changes focused specifically on political funding and were not affecting general scholarships or unrelated foreign support.

“For example, if a student receives a scholarship, legislative changes do not affect them, so it is false to claim that anyone receiving any type of funding would automatically be affected by these changes”, he said.

The Prime Minister emphasised that the law clearly defined political content and its funding restrictions.

“If a particular individual receives foreign funding for disseminating political content, this, of course, may fall under the regulation of this law. Politics cannot be funded from outside the country - it is very simple. The law stipulates that politics should not be funded externally, and what counts as political content is also clearly defined by law. If it involves political content, it should not be funded from abroad. If we encounter such a case, naturally, the law we adopt will apply”, he noted.

He further highlighted that producing content with political messaging - whether podcasts, media, or other formats - could not receive foreign funding, as this would constitute interference in Georgia’s sovereignty.

“For example, if a podcast of political content is produced and even its promotion is funded from outside the country, this is, by its nature, funding of politics from abroad, which violates the principle of state sovereignty. You may create a podcast - this is freedom of expression - but if you produce a podcast with political content, then it should not receive foreign funding, because that constitutes interference in Georgia's sovereignty. For a long time, the law has stated that a political party cannot be funded from abroad; the same principle applies here. It should be clear: a Georgian citizen should not have their political activity funded from abroad because this violates the principle of state sovereignty. Accordingly, the Government has a constitutional duty to protect the sovereignty of its own country”, he concluded.