Any funding that is directly or indirectly related to politics must be transparent to the public, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze told journalists.

According to the head of government, it is NGOs that are “avoiding” this, which is clear evidence that there is something hidden in their funding.

"First of all, the public should hear these explanations, why they are hiding their funding from the Georgian public. You remember, their main message was stigmatization. They stated that they did not want to register as agents of influence of a foreign power. They registered directly as a foreign power. This shows, this shows how false their messages were regarding stigmatization and, in general, regarding the transparency law. Any funding that is directly or indirectly related to politics should be transparent to the public. These organizations are avoiding this, which is unmistakable proof that there is something in this funding that they have to hide," the Prime Minister said.

A journalist asked Irakli Kobakhidze about activities and influencers on social networks, to which the Prime Minister said that they should not accept foreign funding for podcasts of political content.

“You can record a podcast, of course, this is freedom of expression. You can record a podcast, but if you record a podcast with political content, then you should not accept foreign funding for this podcast. Because this is interference in the sovereignty of Georgia. It’s simple,” the Prime Minister stated.

He explained that the law defines everything “precisely and meticulously.” According to the Prime Minister, if a podcast with political content is prepared and its advertising is financed from outside the country, this is “funding of politics from outside the country in its content, which is a violation of the principle of the country’s sovereignty.”