"Unfortunately, these benefits are mainly aimed at keeping them here and do not directly impact our citizens, the functioning of government, pensions, wages, health care, defense, or anything else." This is how Georgian Dream MP Irakli Kadagishvili responded to the question about the suspension of aid to Georgia from Western partners.
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As Kadagishvili stated, similar decisions "contribute to a certain extent" to tensions during the pre-election process.
"This is an attempt to blackmail the population before the elections and somehow provide vital oxygen for speculation to parties like Lelo and National Movement. This is a sad and very regrettable fact. Georgia is an independent state with considerable experience and clear progress on the road to democracy. The country will overcome this misunderstanding. After the parliamentary elections and the end of the war in Ukraine, the situation will move towards normalization," Kadagishvili said.
In an interview with the Spanish publication Europa Press on August 1, the spokesperson for the European Union's foreign service, Peter Stano, reiterated the EU's concern about the entry into force of the Russian Law on so-called agents and said that the EU is considering suspending financial assistance to the Georgian government.
The European Union has already frozen 30 million euros, which were intended for the defense of Georgia within the framework of the European Peace Mechanism.
Denmark, a member state of the European Union and NATO, is also conducting a full review of government support. The Danish Ministry of Defense has already suspended the four-year military cooperation with Georgia, which started last year, with a total budget of about 28 million GEL.
After the adoption of the Russian law, the US began a comprehensive review of bilateral cooperation with Georgia. As part of the review, the United States Department of Defense postponed the military exercise Noble Partner 2024, which was supposed to start in Georgia at the end of July, for an indefinite period. On July 31, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the US is suspending more than $95 million in aid that directly benefits the Georgian government. The reason for the suspension of aid is the government's "anti-democratic actions and false statements," which, according to Blinken, do not comply with the norms of EU and NATO membership.
