“I address the organizers of ‘No to Russian Law’ campaign. This campaign is fake and devoid of grounds. The myth about the bill’s being Russian is not confirmed, it is even more fake because so-called politicians trained in doing Russian work are unable to implement it,” said Maka Botchorishvili, Chair of the parliamentary European Integration Committee.

Maka Botchorishvili said at the parliament sitting that those politicians who are holding protests against the Transparency of Foreign Influence bill did their best for Georgia not to get the EU candidate country status.

“First of all, I would like to address the creators of the “no to the Russian law” campaign:

This campaign is fake, first of all, because it is groundless and the myth about the Russian nature of the law cannot be proven!

It is even more fake because it is being carried out by so-called politicians trained in serving Russian interests.

I would also like to address those people who are sincerely worried about Georgia’s European future and who have been ceaselessly blackmailed over the past two weeks:

Do not believe the concerns of those people who turned their backs on their own homeland at a time of the utmost historic significance and went from door to door in Brussels, trying to convince people not to grant Georgia candidate status; this, rather than demanding transparency, is what serves Russian interests.

Let no one think that I am trying to blame something on someone – they themselves admitted this! To this day, they regret that they missed a historic opportunity and failed to achieve results. Because we did not allow them to do so! Because we spared no effort to mitigate their insidiousness and fight for the truth!

Do not believe the representatives of those organizations that spend their funding to write, in as academic a manner as possible, why our country did not deserve EU candidacy together with Ukraine and Moldova!

These are the people who assessed their homeland more harshly than the toughest arbiter of all – the report of the European Commission!

These are the people who stooped so low as to include Georgia in the category of laggards in the ratings that they themselves created.

Do not be deceived by the suggestion that this law will declare friends as enemies! It is no secret that we are not in the habit of being ungrateful, and the Prime Minister of Georgia confirmed this during his visit to Germany.

To ensure a better future for this country and its people, it is necessary to know how even our partners’ funds are spent in Georgia and how they contribute to Georgia’s genuinely European path.

I cannot help but address yesterday’s anti-hero: Aleko Elisashvili, tell the public how much your so-called pro-European behavior in the Parliament of Georgia yesterday cost. Even if they show the video of your fistfight in space, let alone on CNN, and make you popular there, in this city you will still remain how you have always been known by the majority of the public!

Now, a few words about transparency itself: There is a lot of talk among member states of the European Union about the need to protect democracy and about the need for transparency of persons and organizations involved in the political decision-making process. Having access to information is deemed a legitimate right of citizens. Why do you deny Georgian citizens the same?

In our reality, why should the organizations that participate in political life and often shape or exacerbate the political landscape hide the goals of their activities and the sources of their funding from the public?

Finally, now it is in the authorities’ best interest to sit down at the negotiating table with the European Union in a timely manner.

One of the preconditions for this was defined in the nine steps and involves the successful conduct of the elections.

It has been demonstrated more than once that you are not interested in the elections, and given the latest ratings, I understand very well that you have lost all hope and are, once again, looking to revolutionary scenarios for success.

No matter how much you bully us, no matter how you try to fight against the state, you will not be able to Russianize our European dream, the true Georgian dream.

The fight to bring Georgia to EU membership has started and we will definitely see it through to the end,” she said.