Speaker of the Georgian Parliament is responding to a gathering financed by the Council of Europe, which is being held by Armaz Akhvlediani in Bakhmaro.

“This matter has two dimensions. The first is whether the law was violated, and the Audit Office will provide an answer to this question. It will be a major scandal if it turns out that the Council of Europe is involved in violating the legislation of a member state. Therefore, let us see what conclusion the Audit Office will have; however, this matter also has a second dimension, which might be even more scandalous.

I believe it requires no proof that Armaz Akhvlediani is an exceptionally radical politician. In 2020, in the previous convocation of the Parliament, he was a Member of Parliament through the single party list of the United National Movement [UNM]. He did not recognize the 2020 elections and, by the way, it took him months to enter the Parliament and show respect for the choice of Georgian citizens. Following this, in the 2024 elections, he was also a member of the UNM list, and he was also removed from the parliamentary list by a joint decision of the UNM; furthermore, he was one of the first to call on the population on October 26 to reject the election results and urged toward radicalization.

When a person participates in parliamentary elections on the party list of the UNM - the party of the dictator Saakashvili - and then rejects these elections and this choice, financing this person under the guise of contributing to civic dialogue is either self-deception on the part of the Council of Europe or pulling the wool over the eyes of the Georgian people.

So let the Council of Europe choose which of these two answers is correct. A third answer does not exist here, as no one on the face of the earth can argue that financing a radical contributes to civic dialogue. It is very unfortunate that we are seeing such developments”, - said Shalva Papuashvili.

The State Audit Office has initiated monitoring against the Tbilisi School of Political Studies. According to the agency’s explanation, the subject of the inquiry is the alleged fact of receiving a grant without the consent of the Government of Georgia.