“For the past several years, interference has been taking place in our internal politics using various instruments. Unfortunately, in most cases financed by Brussels,” the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, has stated.

According to him, Georgia has good experience in combating interference and will share this experience with the Council of Europe.

“The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers has established a special expert group working on issues of foreign information interference. The expert group has prepared a document, and the Council of Europe has invited members of the Committee of Ministers to share their perspectives. Accordingly, we, like other agencies, are contributing our recommendations and experiences to the CoE. This underscores the critical importance of combating foreign interference in the modern information age. In this context, I believe we possess dual experience: firstly, as a target of foreign information interference, and secondly, as a nation that has developed some of the best practices in countering such interference.

Over the past several years, we have observed interference in our internal politics through various means: disinformation, hate speech, often financed by Brussels, which incites hatred and leads certain groups toward violence and the undermining of our democratic foundations. We have seen how such harmful operations are planned and executed. At the same time, we have demonstrated how a country can remain resilient against such interference, both practically, through combating disinformation and interference, and legislatively. We have shared our experience in this regard,” Papuashvili stated.

The Council of Europe has requested member states, including Georgia, to share information on foreign information manipulation and interference.