Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) announced that it has closed its Tbilisi office on September 30 after more than two decades of work with the country, citing Georgia’s grant restrictions and the Georgian government’s rejection of its applications for funding its project work.
The closure is “a direct consequence of the political and legal framework created by the Georgian government, under which the KAS can no longer fulfill its core mission as a political foundation on the ground,” KAS, one of Germany’s largest foundations, affiliated with the Christian Democratic Party (CDU), said in its October 1 statement.
KAS said that on July 28, Georgian authorities rejected its applications for funding its project work under Georgia’s amended Law on Grants.
Amendments to the Law on Grants in 2025 introduced mandatory government approval for foreign donors to disburse local grants, while March 2026 amendments further expanded the restrictions to foreign organizations willing to provide funds to their local branches.
“Intensive efforts, including on the part of the German federal government, to enable the foundation to continue its work under the new framework conditions were unsuccessful,” the foundation said, noting that the government’s approval “appeared possible only if they no longer corresponded to the foundation’s political character and mandate.”
According to KAS, maintaining a presence in Georgia without the ability to fulfill its actual mandate would not be a viable alternative for the foundation, describing the office closure as an “unavoidable consequence of the Georgian government’s restrictions” on its work.
Listing its activities since 2003, KAS said its work focused on promoting democracy, the rule of law, parliamentary development, German-Georgian relations, and Georgia’s rapprochement with the EU, as well as facilitating regional programs focused on cooperation in the South Caucasus and interfaith dialogue. The foundation has also regularly offered academic scholarships for Georgians.
According to the foundation, its work has been funded through grants from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Federal Foreign Office (AA), and the EU.
KAS said, however, that it will maintain its registration as a legal entity in the country “in order to enable a return should the political conditions change.”
Nona Kurdovanidze, former head of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, a Georgian human rights group, linked the KAS decision to the March amendments extending the requirement to obtain government consent for funding to local branches of foreign organizations.
“In such a case, the government’s refusal cannot be regarded merely as a refusal to provide or allow the use of a grant and, in effect, amounts to the organization being expelled from the country,” Kurdovanidze wrote on Facebook.
Georgia’s Tightening Funding Environment
As part of its crackdown on civil society and media, the ruling Georgian Dream party has gradually restricted access to foreign funding through a series of laws since 2024, including the Georgian version of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and a repeatedly amended Law on Grants. Under the current versions, both laws carry criminal penalties, including several years in prison, for certain violations related to foreign funding.
That includes failure to seek government consent for certain foreign grants under the Law on Grants, punishable by up to six years in prison, and failure to register as a foreign agent under FARA, punishable by up to five years in prison.
While dozens of civil society organizations have reported inspections by the now-abolished Anti-Corruption Bureau over the past year, the cases never grew into criminal prosecutions. However, local and international watchdogs have repeatedly pointed to the chilling effects of what they consider vague and arbitrary legislation, leading many organizations either to shut down or scale back their activities.
Recently, Tbilisi also revived pressure and scrutiny of foreign organizations, including the Council of Europe, for working with local groups.
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