NGOs have never condemned high-ranking Ukrainian government officials’ calls on the second front. If the Transparency Law had been in force, these organisations would have refrained from war propaganda and would not have embarrassed their funders,” Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze stated on Wednesday.

According to Kobakhidze, “Now they are brazenly talking about Russian interests.”

“In 2022, NGOs openly joined the campaign of the second front. In the first days after the start of the war [in Ukraine], they demanded the imposition of sanctions, and the sending of volunteers to Ukraine with the official approval of the government, which meant the country’s economy would collapse.

In the first year, we would have at least a ten percent drop in the economy, which means that our economy would lose several billion dollars. During Covid, we had – 6.5 percent. You can imagine what a 10% shrinkage of the economy in the first year would cause. The economic collapse was their goal.

The second proposal was to deploy volunteers to Ukraine with the government’s approval. This directly implied Georgia’s engagement in the military conflict. Let us remind you that certain NGOs, together with the relevant parties, demanded all of this.

Also, we’d like to remind you of a famous comment from one of their leaders: “Russia is losing the battle in Ukraine; there aren’t enough resources left to launch military operations in all directions. We must do everything to use this window of opportunity.” Now this NGO leader brazenly talks to us about Russian interests. Exactly these people brought Russian tanks to Georgia in 2008, their statements in February-March 2022, and thereafter served the same purpose.

Also, I would like to remind you that these NGOs have never heard, for example, the appeals of the Ukrainian authorities regarding the second front. It should be condemned if the second front was not in their interests. Never once did they decry any of these statements, which directly called us to make Georgia the second front. I am sure that if the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence had come into effect, these organizations would have refrained from war propaganda and would not have embarrassed their donors”, Kobakhidze stated.

1tv.ge