On Friday, May 3, demonstrators once again gathered across the national parliament in Georgia, demanding the government withdraw the new draft law requiring organizations receiving money from abroad to register. At the same time the Georgian Prime Minister Iraki Kobakhidze slammed criticism from the U.S. and European Union which, in support of the organizations the U.S. is funding, are also demanding withdrawal of the new draft law.
Kobakhidze this week accused U.S. State Department Counselor Derek Chollet of continuing the behavior by State Department officials, who encouraged anti-government activities. Asserting that the legislation was necessary for transparency and accountability, Kobakhidze wrote on his X account: “I explained to Mr. Chollet that false statements made by the officials of the U.S. State Department about the transparency bill and street rallies remind us of similar false statements made by the former U.S. Ambassador in 2020-2023, which served to the facilitation of violence from foreign funded actors and to the support of revolutionary processes back then.” These statements had encouraged violence from and had supported “revolutionary processes” which Kobakhidze said had been unsuccessful.
“Also, I clarified to Mr. Chollet that it requires a special effort to restart the relations against this background, which is impossible without a fair and honest approach.”
Taking on the EU, Kobakhidze wrote that in his conversation with European Council President Charles Michel, “I conveyed my disappointment that despite numerous invitations, our partners have been reluctant to engage in substantive discussions on transparency law. Furthermore, I highlighted that we have not yet heard any counter arguments against this proposed legislation, which is solely aimed at promoting transparency and accountability of relevant organizations vis-à-vis Georgian society.”
On May 2, Tbilisi’s Foreign Ministry issued a short statement that: “Today, the U.S. ambassador’s statement was published that high officials of the Georgian government were invited to the U.S., which the Georgian side refused. In this regard, we would like to clarify that the Prime Minister of Georgia was invited to the U.S.A. with the reservation that before the visit, the Parliament of Georgia had to temporarily stop the discussion of the draft law on ‘Transparency of Foreign Influence.’ Carrying out a visit with reservations does not correspond to the spirit of partnership, which should be based on mutual respect and mutual trust, for which the U.S. ambassador presented a detailed explanation.”
Meanwhile Georgia’s Ministry of Interior issued a statement May 3 warning that provocateurs were planning to wear police uniforms in order to stage violent provocations, reported TASS today. “The Interior Ministry obtained information that certain organizers of the rallies planned to arrange a so-called performance, in particular, to carry out the initiation of violent actions on the part of law enforcers. They were also going to put on uniforms of members of various units of the Interior Ministry and spread information that the police allegedly joined the protesters,” the statement said.
Acting through social media networks, the statement said there were attempts to buy police uniforms. The protesters are also appealing to police officers to join the demonstrations. These actions echo those in 2014 during the Maidan demonstrations in Kiev that carried out the coup in Ukraine.
