Georgia called for an apology after Trump's statement

All those who criticized the law on foreign agents must now apologize to Georgia. This was written by the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Shalva Papuashvili on his Facebook page*, commenting on US President Donald Trump's statement about the huge scale of corruption in the American Agency for International Development (USAID).

"It is time for all foreigners who fought against the Foreign Influence Transparency Act to apologize to the Georgian government and the Georgian people," he wrote.

At the end of last year, Georgian authorities had previously adopted two laws: "On Family Values and Protection of Minors," also known as the law banning LGBT** propaganda, and "On Transparency of Foreign Influence," also known as the law on foreign agents. The EU criticized these laws and demanded that Tbilisi repeal them, threatening to suspend the EU accession process, cut off financial support and even halt visa liberalization for Tbilisi citizens.

In turn, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced a decision to suspend until 2028 the start of negotiations on Georgia's membership in the European Union, which triggered mass opposition rallies.

New DOGE head and entrepreneur Ilon Musk on Feb. 2 called USAID a "criminal organization" that "it's time to die." On Monday, Musk said that Trump agrees to shut down USAID. In addition, the head of DOGE clarified that they are already in the process of shutting down the agency.

Last week, USAID announced that all of its directly employed staff around the world, with a number of exceptions, would be placed on administrative leave. The media reported that all USAID overseas offices have been ordered to close and all personnel will be recalled. The reduction will allegedly affect 97% of employees.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, appointed by Trump as acting head of USAID, said that the new administration was going to audit the agency "from top to bottom" to determine the appropriateness of funding for international policy programs, as USAID was spending money "to the detriment" of the United States.

Reprinted from ria.ru