Georgia’s ruling party official: US administration has exposed how USAID and NED used NGOs to stage revolutions in various countries

Levan Machavariani, the First Deputy Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream parliamentary faction, said on Thursday that the current US administration had “exposed everything” by presenting facts and evidence that, he claimed, showed how organisations such as USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) had operated through NGOs in various countries to create instability and organise revolutions.

Machavariani made the remarks while responding to Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s comments on the closure of the Grants Management Agency.

“We can recall many examples in Georgia as well of so-called wealthy NGOs interfering in the country’s political agenda and playing a leading role in developing revolutionary scenarios”, he said.

“We can also recall the offensive campaigns they conducted against the Patriarchate and His Holiness, as well as the various initiatives they used to lobby for the normalisation of the LGBT agenda in Georgia. There are many such examples, and none of them were in line with our country’s national interests”, Machavariani added.

Earlier, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze told journalists that NGOs had been used “as the main instrument of foreign intervention”, adding that Georgia had witnessed numerous examples of such activity.

“Therefore, creating NGOs and financing such activities is wrong”, he noted.

The comments followed a response from the US State Department to a reminder issued by the Department of Justice regarding federal legislation that requires individuals to register as foreign agents when acting in the United States at the direction or under the control of a foreign government or foreign entity.