The decision of the US and the EU to suspend funding for the Georgian army and Lugar's laboratory near Tbilisi is incomprehensible, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili said. This is reported by the TV channel 1tv.ge .
"There are many ways in which the government [of Georgia] could be punished, but it cannot be punished through the Georgian army, on which our defense stands," Zurabishvili said.
The Georgian army enjoys the full confidence of the population and is the only pillar of the state, the President stressed. The United States is a powerful state, not a small child, the politician added.
The Richard Lugar Public Health Research Center was opened near the Tbilisi International Airport in the village of Alekseevka in 2011 under an American government program.
The ruling Georgian Dream party adopted a law on foreign agents in the spring, which was sharply criticized by the opposition, the United States and The European Union warned that the innovations would interfere with bilateral relations with the West.
According to the new rules, non-governmental organizations and the media, whose foreign funding exceeds 20% of their annual income, will have to register as an "organization exercising the interests of a foreign power."
In early August, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that the United States was suspending a program of assistance to Georgia for more than $ 95 million as part of a review of cooperation in connection with Tbilisi's adoption of the law on foreign agents. Prior to that, for the same reason, the EU decided to freeze € 30 million, which was planned to be allocated to the Ministry of Defense of Georgia. Deputy Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Nino Tsilosani noted that Lugar's laboratory will continue to work as usual, despite the termination of funding from the United States.