US Allocates $0.5 m to Georgia to Fight against Propaganda
By Tea Mariamidze
Friday, October 5
The United States of America allocated $0.5 million to Georgia to boost its strategic communications in the fight against hostile propaganda.
The information was released by Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze at the government session, who said that the country is challenged by the aggressive propaganda masterminded by hostile forces.
Bakhtadze believes that the USA has allocated funding to address these very challenges.
"We have developed a very significant Action Plan together with our strategic partner. It was for this challenge that US State Department allocated $0.5 million. It is aimed at boosting the strategic communications. It is a unique project, which reaffirms the solid support of US Government towards western integration of Georgia," the PM said.
Bakhtadze added that the funding will be channeled to the Information Centre on NATO and EU, which will ensure the nation-wide public awareness on the benefits expected from the European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Georgia and its citizens.
Georgia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) also released a statement regarding the funding.
“It is the first large-scale project awarded to the Government of Georgia to increase the Georgian population’s resistance to the threats of anti-western propaganda to ensure the effective communication of the country’s progress on the European and Euro-Atlantic integration path,” the statement of the ministry reads.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the restoration of independence of Georgia, Russia has still interfered with the domestic politics of Georgia by using hard power to keep control on its former Soviet republic’s future when it occupied Georgia’s two breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in 2008 and also by using its soft power – anti-western propaganda.
