“Those charged with espionage against Georgia were using NGOs to legitimise their funding, ostensibly financing one project or another, whilst in reality bankrolling hostile activities directed against Georgia,” declared the Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia, Shalva Papuashvili.

Papuashvili noted that not a single one of the NGOs in question is registered in the transparency registry, which, he said, speaks volumes about what type of organisations these are, those standing against transparency itself.

“In recent times, you have witnessed arrests, the result of counter-intelligence operations, of individuals working in the interests of foreign states. It was stated that among those states was a European country. You have seen that these individuals operated, in part, through NGOs. Several non-governmental organisations were registered in their names. We checked, and none of those organisations is registered in the transparency registry, nor did they disclose their finances publicly. We have long maintained that the NGO system is being exploited for hostile activities against Georgia. Those charged with espionage against Georgia were using NGOs to launder their funding, ostensibly channelling money into this or that project, whilst in reality financing hostile operations against Georgia. The fact that none of these NGOs is registered in the transparency registry reveals precisely what kind of organisations they are: ones that are fundamentally opposed to transparency. It was exactly these espionage-linked NGOs that refused to register. This confirms how entirely justified the transparency requirements were. This is not an allegation; it is a fact. There are formal espionage charges directly connected to the leadership of these NGOs. The NGOs were used as instruments of espionage.

Is it not publicly known that the European Union was funding Droa and Mona.ge? A fascist website was created with the money of EU citizens. The European Union arose from the ruins of the defeat of fascism and Nazism as a project of peace, and it now transpires that its money was being spent in Georgia to create and disseminate a fascist website. We saw violence being financed with European money. If funding a Molotov cocktail campaign and bankrolling hostile activities against Georgia does not constitute enmity, then someone has plainly lost the ability to tell friend from foe,” said Papuashvili.