- summary
- Georgian parliament adopts Law on Grants amendments establishing State Grant Management Agency on February 20, 2025 — 80 votes in fast-track procedure. Agency funded with 20 million GEL (6.8 million EUR) from state budget (already allocated in 2025 budget). PM Kobakhidze September 2024 pre-announcement: agency will be "open only to CSOs registered in the 'Register of Organisations Pursuing the Interests of a Foreign Power'" — meaning only organizations that have complied with the foreign agent label will be eligible for state grants. GD majority leader Mamuka Mdinaradze February 5 statement frames agency alongside other "restrictive proposals." ANALYTICAL SIGNIFICANCE: creates parallel pro-government civil society (GONGO ecosystem) as direct replacement for independent CSOs; "facade of cooperation between the parallel civil society and the state"; CSOMeter: "similar to practices of control analysed in Azerbaijan and Belarus." Combined effect of foreign funding restrictions + state grant agency: independent CSOs lose funding → state grants available only to compliant/loyal orgs → independent sector financially eliminated without formal closure.
- country
- Georgia
- date text
- 20/02/2025
- entities
- Georgian Dream (80 votes); Irakli Kobakhidze (PM — September 2024 announcement); Mamuka Mdinaradze (GD parliamentary majority leader)
- entity type
- Government Official
- id
- 781
- name
- Georgian Dream (80 votes); Irakli Kobakhidze (PM — September 2024 announcement); Mamuka Mdinaradze (GD parliamentary majority leader)
- role
- actor
- Independent civil society sector — excluded from state funding; pro-government organizations — beneficiaries
- entity type
- Sector
- id
- 782
- name
- Independent civil society sector — excluded from state funding; pro-government organizations — beneficiaries
- role
- target
- Georgian Dream (80 votes); Irakli Kobakhidze (PM — September 2024 announcement); Mamuka Mdinaradze (GD parliamentary majority leader)
- sources
- citation
- CSOMeter February 2025 (https://csometer.info — primary); CSOMeter April 10 2025 (State Grant Management Agency context)
- tactics
- GONGO Institutional Operations
- label
- GONGO Institutional Operations
- code
- TC-26
- needs review
- false
- role
- primary
- Political Favouritism in Grants
- label
- Political Favouritism in Grants
- code
- TC-30
- needs review
- false
- role
- secondary
- GONGO Institutional Operations
- narratives
- Political Interference
- label
- Political Interference
- code
- NF-09
- needs review
- false
- role
- primary
- Foreign Agent / Foreign Influence
- label
- Foreign Agent / Foreign Influence
- code
- NF-01
- needs review
- false
- role
- secondary
- Political Interference
- campaign ids
- campaign phase
- Stage 6: Structural Enabler
- campaigns served
- channels
- Official/Regulatory
- civic response
- Independent CSOs condemn; CSOMeter: "establishes parallel civil society similar to Azerbaijan/Belarus"
- consequence category
- Legal/Administrative
- created at
- 2026-09-24T17:50:55.358311+00:00
- date precision
- day
- enabler status
- Active
- enabler type
- GONGO Infrastructure
- escalation
- 6
- harm track
- Track 1 — Legal/Administrative
- id
- GEO-008
- institutional consequence
- State-funded parallel civil society established; independent CSO sector financially isolated; GONGO ecosystem formally institutionalized via budget allocation
- notes
- STAGE 6 STRUCTURAL ENABLER — GONGO Infrastructure. The eligibility requirement (only organizations registered as "foreign power interest" organizations can apply) is analytically the most direct GONGO mechanism in the database: compliance with the foreign agent label is rewarded with state funding; non-compliance (i.e., maintaining independence) means losing both foreign funding (via restrictions) and domestic funding (via exclusion). This is the Georgian equivalent of the Serbian GONGO network and the RS GONGO/QUANGO ecosystem (BIH-014). CSOMeter references Azerbaijan/Belarus precedent explicitly — cross-regime pattern documented.
- occurred on
- 2025-02-20
- signal ids
- trigger type
- TR-06: Legislative Milestone
- updated at
- 2026-09-24T17:50:55.358311+00:00
- version
- 1
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