Apparently, the French Embassy does not consider us people - no one here is stupid enough to believe that the French Embassy pays representatives of radical parties to draw up tourist routes - I suspect that this is indirect financing of rallies, - the Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia, Shalva Papuashvili, said in response to a question about the grant issued by the French Embassy before the adoption of the Law on Grants.
According to him, the French Ambassador does not want transparency and it seems that some people consider Georgia to be their "backyard".
Papuashvili reminded the ambassadors that they are guests in Georgia.
"As for the question of why the French Embassy does not make it public, I will answer you with the words of Jim Risch - "We must follow the money. If there is nothing to hide, then why is there resistance?!" I would tell the French ambassador this. If there is nothing to hide, why are they hiding it then and why is there resistance?! The statement was that there had been a competition, I will remind all ambassadors that they are guests in this country. This is a privilege for any diplomacy, for an organization, that they have the opportunity to participate in the development of the country, society. This privilege comes with responsibility. It is not like you come to a country, throw money here and there and then not feel responsible for what happens with this money. Unfortunately, some countries and organizations have such an experience, when years later it turns out that they have financed extremists, politicians. That is why it is important, first of all, to be transparent in this regard. However, as we see, the French ambassador does not want transparency. Despite the statement that there was a competition, there is no answer. Therefore, we can assume that there was no competition and this is the harmful practice that the United States administration is talking about today, when there was a deal to issue grants in order to exert some political influence. The subjects to whom the French Embassy gave money are politicians. Irakli Khvadagiani was a member of parliament. He was among the top ten of the National Movement. Giorgi Kandelaki was the ideologist of the National Movement when it was in power. He is a co-creator of the torture and racketeering system.
I think these statements [by the embassy] are offensive. No one is stupid here to believe that politicians, representatives of radical parties, are being paid to draw up tourist routes. In fact, I suspect that this is indirect financing of the rallies.
It seems that the French Embassy does not consider us people. It seems that some people think of our country as a backyard. We have seen this movie. Sometimes Moscow saw us as a backyard, sometimes other capitals. We have been looking at this history for 3,000 years, but 3,000 years also show that in the end, the Georgian people remain, because they are on the side of truth. Those who think of us as a backyard, or whatever the comparison is, we know very well from history what ultimately happens to them,"- said Papuashvili.
For information, the French Embassy in Georgia wrote on social networks on April 15 that the Soviet Past Research Laboratory won the 2025 competition. “We congratulate the Soviet Past Research Laboratory on being the winner of the 2025 competition announced by the French Embassy to support civil society projects in Georgia. The organization’s project will create new tourist routes in Gori and Kutaisi that will explore Georgia’s Soviet past, showcasing key memorial sites related to the resistance to the Soviet totalitarian regime and the democratic experience that existed before the occupation,” the embassy wrote.
v-if="article.gallery" v-html="article.gallery"
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
