After 30 years of fighting for independency and sovereignty against Russian autocracy and the russian totalitarian legacy, Georgia has found itself trapped in a situation where a single-party parliament is mirroring the Kremlin’s practice of suppressing independent voices. The Georgian Dream (GD) organization has established a state grants management agency for cultivating an alternate civilian society through GONGOS: a state-controlled imitation of non-governmental organizations. This is simply a clear throwback to russian times, erstwhile alleged independent organizations, facade institutions, served as ideological instruments to reenforce the regime’s power, and did not reflect genuine civic autonomy or impartiality.
The state grants management agency was swiftly established following the amendment of the law on grant making, which was late adopted alongside the alleged “foreign agents law”. This was all done with the intent of dismantling independent civilian society organizations. The agency will supply backing to NGOs straight from the state budget and will be straight subordinate to the government. Meanwhile, the Tbilisi court froze the accounts of 7 leading Georgian civilian society organizations, claiming that the organizations had facilitated force in the early phase of the ongoing anti-government demonstrations. Yet, no evidence was presented to substantiate these claims.
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