Georgian Parliament Speaker says McCain Institute’s Laura Thornton pushes radical agenda to destabilise Georgia

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Thursday said Laura Thornton’s “destruction blueprint” was a desperate outcry of the regime change ideologists, who, as seen in the Ukraine’s case, “destroy societies with enthusiasm and then hide in the shadows”.

Papuashvili’s comments came after Laura Thornton, the Senior Director for Global Democracy Programmes at the McCain Institute, on Wednesday said an economic crisis in Georgia was necessary for the protest to succeed and for cracks to emerge within the Government.

In a social media message, Papuashvili noted that while the world was going through profound geopolitical transformation, some international networks continued meddling in Georgia’s internal affairs by trying to foment unrest and thus overthrow the legitimate Government.

“The McCainInstitute’s Laura Thornton’s latest op-ed is a particularly blatant example of delusion combined with the unfortunate effects of foreign funding of radicalism. For a moment, let us leave alone the delusional allegations of dictatorship, repression, and torture, never substantiated with any kind of evidence. A more interesting context is taking shape once we get inside the strange bubble that engulfed the minds of Georgia’s foreign frenemies and their local following. First, Thornton represents the McCain institute, which employs Georgia’s ex-president Zourabishvili, who is now claiming to be the only legitimate president of Georgia, despite her term expiring last year and Georgian Parliament electing the new president of the country”, the Parliament Speaker said.

“Second, she refers to International Republican Institute (IRI) and SFED as ‘reputable international and domestic observers’ to justify her claim that Georgia’s October Parliamentary elections were ‘neither free nor fair’, while neglecting the Report of the only legitimate international election monitoring organization, the OSCE/ODIHR. Now, IRI is funded by the notorious NED, which was accused by the current US Administration of meddling in foreign countries’ domestic affairs. ISFED is a local NGO, which falsified parallel vote tabulation results after the 2020 Parliamentary elections. USAID funding for both IRI local office and ISFED were terminated recently after President Trump deemed such programs serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries. So, neither of these two organizations can be considered as reputable by any standards. Third, the NGO media platform, which published the op-ed, Civil. ge, is also funded from NED, and its managing editor is a wife of one of the most radical Georgian politicians”, he continued.

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Papuashvili noted that now, from within this strange bubble of intertwined personalities and organizations funded from the same foreign source, Thornton was advocating for a forceful change of Georgian Government, alluding to the spirit of the Ukrainian Maidan, which, for most Georgians, had become a symbol of the destruction of a nation, not “a global call for freedom”, as Thornton strangely claimed.

“Despairing about the impotence of Georgian opposition to mobilize either electorate or protest movement to change or overthrow the government, Thornton suggests to make Georgia basically ungovernable through national strikes and boycotts, alluding to the possibility of involving security forces and military into the action. She also recommends that Georgia’s radical opposition connect… to the deeper grievances and bread-and-butter concerns of Georgians”, Papuashvili said.

“This is where the magnitude of Thorton’s and her allies’ delusion shows itself with full force. Trying to destabilize the most democratic nation of the region through the ‘paralysis of economy’ goes against the interests not only of Georgians but also the US Administration, whom Thornton so vehemently hates, calling president Trump rapist and criminal. Moreover, luring Georgians into rebelling against the government for their ‘bread-and-butter’ problems is entirely pointless because first, Georgians never sell their national interests because of hardship, and, second, Georgia is one of the fastest growing economies worldwide in the last few years”, he noted.

Parliament Speaker further emphasised that while the US administration tried to stop wars and make peace, some international networks, were still using the US taxpayers’ money, were trying to stir trouble and push foreign countries towards the war and destruction.