Kobakhidze Welcomes U.S. Foreign Funding Freeze, Calls It a Blow to Opposition
By Liza Mchedlidze
Monday, February 3, 2025
Irakli Kobakhidze has welcomed the U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to suspend all foreign funding for three months, stating that he hopes the freeze will last longer. He argued that halting the funding would "contribute to the stable development" of Georgia and described it as "a black day for the radical opposition."
Kobakhidze linked the funding halt to alleged past U.S. efforts to destabilize Georgia, claiming that the previous U.S. administration had used grants to "cause unrest, organize revolutions, and destabilize countries." He referenced past political turmoil in Georgia, particularly protests against the foreign agents law in 2023 and 2024, saying that transparency demands regarding foreign grants had triggered "two attempts at revolutions."
Accusing the former U.S. administration of financing "revolutionary processes and unrest," Kobakhidze specifically criticized the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and its funding of a 2022 training program by the Center for Applied Nonviolent Actions and Strategies (CANVAS). He alleged that the program trained activists "how to bulldoze government buildings" and reiterated claims of four attempted revolutions in Georgia between 2020 and 2024.
Kobakhidze also sought to align the Georgian Dream government with the new U.S. administration, suggesting that Trump's stance mirrors GD's long-standing position. "What we have been talking about for the last three years, and therefore accused of being pro-Russian and anti-Western, the new [U.S.] administration is repeating word for word today," he said, also referencing statements about Ukraine's sacrifices in the ongoing war.
Expressing optimism about the political climate in Washington, he added, "We have great hope that the 'Deep State' will finally be defeated in the U.S., and in such a case, the approach towards Georgia will change completely." Kobakhidze said GD aims to renew its strategic partnership with the U.S. "from a clean slate" with a roadmap delivering tangible results for both sides.
