-Got to admire the guy...I hope he has a good security team. It's pretty hard not to see what's going on when: " ..25,000 NGOs operated in Georgia as of 2024 and 90% of them received their funding from abroad." that's for a population of 3.71 million...not anywhere near even the population of Scotland...25,000 ? Phhhh...
Georgian PM calls for review of relations with US
Story by Reuters • 2h
Georgian Prime Minister Irakly Kobakhidze called on Friday for a review of relations with the United States after Washington ordered punitive measures over the passage of a law on "foreign agents", Russian news agencies reported.
"Georgian-American relations must truly be reviewed. We'll discuss this with the ambassador," RIA news agency quoted Kobakhidze as telling journalists in Tbilisi.
The prime minister said relations with Washington had suffered under the previous U.S. ambassador over the diplomat's call for rapid and sharp changes in policy.
Georgia's parliament, controlled by the prime minister's Georgian Dream party, passed the law requiring organisations receiving more than 20% of their funding from overseas to register as agents of foreign influence. The legislation sparked large street protests.
Opponents of the bill, with its provisions for onerous disclosure requirements and hefty fines for violations, say it is authoritarian and inspired by similar legislation in Russia.
The European Union says the law could compromise Georgia's bid to join the 27-nation bloc.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week imposed visa restrictions and launched a review of bilateral cooperation. He said the law would "stifle the exercise of freedoms of association and expression" and impede the work of independent media organizations.
Kobakhidze's government says the bill will promote transparency and safeguard sovereignty against what it says is a bid in the West to drag Georgia into confrontation with Russia.
Parliament voted to override a presidential veto of the bill, which has sparked some of the biggest protests seen in the South Caucasus country since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Glad to see *that* colour revolution stifled. Music to my ears. The next hurdle is likely to be is how Georgia admin is to carry out their stated policy to police these numerous NGO's.
The show's not over yet methinks...the figures though seem quite astonishing: check my arithmetic but isn't that a whole and entire foreign-funded NGO for every150 Georgians? How many employees each? Salaries? Working funds?
Say each employs a mere 10 locals...that's a fully foreign paid "army" of a quarter of a million to play with. -No wonder they can get punters out on the streets actually fighting against their own national interests. It's the perfect example of Sinclairism: "It Is Difficult to Get a Man to Understand Something When His Salary Depends Upon His Not Understanding It"
.. check my arithmetic but isn't that a whole and entire foreign-funded NGO for every 150 Georgians? How many employees each? Salaries? Working funds?
Yep. 148.4. Although Georgia is very rich culturally, it is a relatively poor agricultural country. Historically, it has always been a very strategic piece of real estate. The only current resource that is worthy of note is the BTC oil and gas pipeline (BP consortium) running from Azerbaijan to Turkey etc. On a tactical level, I guess, it's no brainer that the urban population would be shanghaied into demonstrating etc. It's just surprising that this (urban) people, who are well educated (due to Soviet legacy) would not be thinking strategically. I guess Sinclair's dictum prevails.
on May 31, 2024, 11:01 pm