Papuashvili Criticizes UK Embassy Over NGO Funding Concerns
By Liza Mchedlidze
Monday, September 1, 2025
Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili has criticized a statement from the British Embassy in Tbilisi, calling it "unfriendly" after the UK expressed deep concern over the freezing of bank accounts belonging to seven non-governmental organizations.
Papuashvili accused the embassy of attempting to finance groups with what he described as "an extremist agenda." He said this raised doubts about the embassy's true intentions. "This has raised legitimate suspicions in the public that the Embassy's goal might not be to facilitate the holding of local elections, but rather to financially empower individuals with the goal of sabotaging the elections," Papuashvili wrote.
He claimed that earlier this year, the British Embassy sought to provide funding to entities he labeled as partisan, including the newspaper Tabula and an organization called Academy of the Future. He argued that although the stated purpose was related to election reporting and observation, the groups' real aim was to disrupt the process.
"Of course, this raised legitimate suspicions in the public that the Embassy's goal might not be to facilitate the holding of local elections, but rather to financially empower individuals with the goal of sabotaging the elections," he said, adding that he had previously urged the embassy to clarify its actions.
According to Papuashvili, his calls for transparency went unanswered. "Traditionally, the embassy has left the questions and concerns of the Georgian public unanswered. In return, we received another unfriendly statement towards the Georgian people," he wrote.
