“As expected, and now we know, the vast majority of Georgian civil society has displayed a responsible and sober approach towards the issue of transparency,” wrote Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on the X Platform.

According to the Speaker, 156 foreign-funded organisations completed procedures for inclusion in the Justice Ministry’s Transparency Register.

“This number has already exceeded the 136 non-governmental organizations that protested the adoption of the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence. Moreover, applications from 300 more organisations are under review for registration. This happened despite the menaces of a few political NGOs and their donors that Georgian society would resist the government’s calls for greater transparency and accountability.

It is also evident that it was not the civil society that came out with violent street protests in March 2023 and May this year but the groups mobilized by the radical political parties, through their politicized NGOs and political TV companies. The genuine civil society has spoken. From over 30,000 registered non-profits in Georgia, up to 25,000 were inactive for years. Out of the active ones, it seems some 600 receive their funding from abroad, and only 136 of them resent transparency.

Thus, over 75 percent of foreign-funded non-profit organisations seem not to have a problem with the Law. And, lo and behold, despite the promised end of the world, the sun still rises above Georgia’s beautiful towns and villages,” Shalva Papuashvili said.