Tbilisi mayor accuses West of funding revolutionary efforts Amid tensions over foreign influence law

Kakha Kaladze, Secretary General of the ruling Georgian Dream party and Mayor of Tbilisi, has accused Western politicians of exerting unprecedented pressure on Georgia regarding the newly adopted law on transparency of foreign influence.

Kaladze claimed that this pressure includes attempts to instigate a revolutionary scenario within the country, Interfax reports.

"We are ready to cooperate with the West if we see friendly relations, not unprecedented pressure, not enmity confirmed by concrete facts. Enmity is when the West finances a revolutionary scenario in Georgia," Kaladze stated at a town hall meeting.

He highlighted recent actions by Western officials, such as speeches by foreign ministers from the Baltic States and Iceland at opposition rallies in Tbilisi, as examples of this undue pressure on Georgian authorities.

"If someone wants to open a 'second front', i.e., the Baltic countries, the foreign minister of one of which recently spoke at an anti-government rally in Tbilisi—open it in your country and leave Georgia alone. We need peace, friends, and partners today, not enmity," Kaladze emphasized.

Kaladze also expressed confidence that the Georgian Parliament would override President Salome Zourabichvili's veto, ensuring the law on transparency of foreign influence is enacted.

He criticized the Venice Commission's recent assessment of the law, calling it unreasoned, "politically biased," and based on "distorted facts."