“Today, I signed the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence, the primary objective of which implies the enhancement of the resilience of the political, economic and social systems of Georgia without external interventions”, - the Speaker, H.E. Shalva Papuashvili commented to the media. As he underlined, the approach of the Law is plain and explicit.

If NGOs and media are willing to, funded by the foreign authorities, get engaged in the decision-making process and have an impact on the lives of the Georgian people, they shall meet the minimal transparency standards – the population must know who stands behind every actor.

“This is true with the state institutions, political parties and public servants and shall be true for the organizations funded from abroad. As we have been reiterating, the Law, other than its direct objective, would adhere to other goals as well. The 2-month considerations evidently confirmed this fact. The process revealed that the radical opposition pushes the interests of other countries ahead, prevailing the national interests of the Georgian people. They are unable to tell the national interests apart from the applause by the foreign politicians, or tell independence apart from the obeyance. Their modus operandi was the same when they were in the authority, maintaining it when being in the opposition. Besides, for two months we witnessed the blackmail, menace, and stigmatization of the law, we detected the Ministers of foreign countries hanging at the rallies against the government, we heard them mentioning Maidan from beyond and copying its aesthetics from within. It means that we envisioned everything, which is non-European and carries a soviet nature. And it was the result of the will expressed by the Georgian people to be better informed about the funds inflowed in their country with the purpose of influencing their lives. Thus, the most disappointing in this out-shouted discussion was that none of the foreign states, none of international donors or NGOs with foreign funds ever stepped up assuming the obligation of transparency of their activity toward the Georgian people. None of them! It once again opened the eyes of our people on real pretexts, which hide the desire to maintain the privilege of covertly spending foreign funds behind the backs of the Georgian people”, - the Speaker stated.

Per his assessment, the people are exposed to the apocalyptic illusion against the background when the Law on Transparency stipulates the only simple obligation for the organizations, over 20% of the annual income of which is gained from abroad, to once per annum, submit their financial declarations. This is the minimal standard that might be established, the extreme lower ceiling in the legal systems across the globe.

“We are the witnesses of the dispersion of all misinformative myths, and subdued emotions; and many of the citizens supporting the radical opposition in their protest have uncovered that the Law on Transparency, in fact, will increase the responsibility and accountability of NGOs and their sponsors, improve the political system, mitigate disinformation, and decrease radicalism and polarization. And what is paramount, the Law will provide our citizens with the leverage to make the funds inflowed from abroad be consumed on their interests instead of the interests of the donors and their funded NGOs. Hence, this Law is one of the most Georgian law. And finally, I would like to express my gratitude to the Georgian people, who once again manifested their wisdom by refusing the delusion of lies and the torrent of hatred, demonstrating to every internal or external force that only one side exists – it is Georgia, and there is only one choice –Georgia”, - he stated.