“If previous American ambassadors were asked, they would claim that the United States had spent three billion dollars in Georgia. A large part of this money went to non-governmental organisations. Why? They had agents here, and the coup was carried out through them,” the member of the parliamentary majority Irakli Zarkua stated.

He was responding to a remark by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who recently said: “If we’re trying to help countries, help the country, don’t help the NGO to go in and find a new line of business.”

Zarkua recalled the period after 2012, alleging that U.S. Embassy representatives attempted to influence political decisions.

“In 2012, the governor met us in the guise of the American ambassador, knocking and saying, ‘Do this, do that.’ Back then, we were weak because the embassy imposed so-called cohabitation on us. We couldn’t speak out because the state was so weak that they would have overthrown us, and the ‘National Movement’ would have returned to power. With the right policy, we managed to get to 2020, when the agents began to be removed, and the country was freed from them,” Zarkua said.

According to him, Senator Rubio’s statement indicates a shift in U.S. priorities toward supporting states directly. Zarkua contrasted this with statements by EU officials.

“Rubio says they will help states. Marta Kos says the government has introduced bans, but they are looking for ways to fund NGOs, which means that they seek black holes. That is the difference between them. This is why the European Union is so unfair when it has such an approach. I know for sure that these leaders will eventually be held accountable for how they spent their money,” he said.