Georgia’s State Security Service again claims West plotted coup

According to the 2024 report of the State Security Service of Georgia (SSG), foreign intelligence services, including from Western countries, tried to pursue their own interests in Georgia, including plotting a coup.

The original date of the annual report’s publication is unknown, but local media began reporting on it on Tuesday.

The foreword to the report, signed by the head of the SSG, Anri Okhanashvili, stated that during the reporting period, elections were held in several dozen countries around the world, the results of which laid the foundation for a change in the global geopolitical agenda, gave rise to new approaches and trends in foreign political and economic relations, and significantly facilitated the ability of those countries that are ‘committed to protecting traditional values ​​and assets’ to implement national policies.

According to Okhanashvili, the intelligence services of foreign countries, as well as individual domestic and external actors, using the tools of the ‘hybrid war, tried to influence the political and economic processes taking place in the country’.

‘There were attempts to change the government by force. They actively used disinformation and propaganda information campaigns, which, among others, involved representatives of Western countries and institutions, which made it easier for the intelligence services of individual countries to conduct an anti-Western campaign in Georgia’.

The report claimed that foreign intelligence services actively sought to establish ties with various political forces and their leaders to advance ‘the interests of their own countries’.

According to the report, the greatest threat to Georgia’s national security continued to be ‘the occupation of Georgian regions and the process of annexation’.

According to the SSG, one of the priority directions of foreign forces was to work on the ‘youth sector’, the goal of which, according to them, was to attempt to form a new generation loyal to foreign countries.

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The SSG also claimed that ‘a certain group of individuals operating within and outside the territory of Georgia, under various pretexts (including the adoption of the [foreign agent law], “rigging” the parliamentary elections), planned to provoke civil unrest and destabilisation in Georgia, the ultimate goal of which was to change the government by force’.

According to the report, Georgian citizens living outside the country were actively involved in criminal activities, with the SSG specifically pointing to Georgians fighting in Ukraine. The SSG claimed that plans were also discussed to assassinate Georgian Dream officials.

In 2024, the SSG launched an investigation into this matter, but no results have been publicly announced as of yet.

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Regarding the 2024 protests, the SSG stated that ‘the goal of the organisers of the protests was to “maidanise” the ongoing processes’.

Georgian Dream authorities first declared alleged plans for a ‘Euromaidan’ in Georgia in 2014. Then-Interior Minister Aleksandre Chikaidze claimed in April that year that the opposition United National Movement (UNM) were gathering tents and tyres to burn during anti-government rallies in order to forcefully overthrow the government.

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According to the SSG, during the 2024 protests, ‘it was planned to paralyse Tbilisi’s transport hubs, block access roads to government institutions and strategic facilities, law enforcement deployment bases, and set up so-called tent cities on central avenues’.

‘To increase the protest momentum and radicalism, it was planned to provoke law enforcement officers into confrontation with the demonstrators, which would result in casualties. For this purpose, pyrotechnics and so-called Molotov cocktails were used by individual youth groups’, the report read.

The SSG also claimed that foreign special services ‘tried to use religious organisations operating in Georgia’ to pursue their political interests in Georgia, noting that ‘the amount of funding [to religious organisations] also increased during the reporting period’.

‘Attempts were made to create political organisations based on [different religious groups] and to create a kind of electoral base on religious grounds to support individuals associated with foreign special services, which, given the already tense political environment in the country, could have become a significant threat and extremely harmful to national security’.

The report also claimed that within the framework of counterintelligence activities, the activities of companies registered abroad and legal entities established in Georgia with foreign capital and their representative offices were placed under operational control in order to identify their possible connections with the special services of foreign countries.

‘During the monitoring process, several companies established in Georgia with foreign capital by individuals and legal entities were identified, the products of which could be used for dual (civilian and military) purposes. Their business connections with government and defense agencies of foreign countries were also established’.

In 2024, the Counterintelligence Department of the State Security Service launched an investigation into eight criminal cases, with operational information sent to investigative agencies.

This is not the first time the SSG has claimed that foreign countries have assisted, whether through coordination or financial support, the alleged violent change of government in Georgia.

The SSG published a report claiming such in 2023, while they have additionally repeatedly announced and launched investigations into alleged revolutionary scenarios and the violent overthrow of the government by ‘destructive forces’.

The ruling Georgian Dream government and its satellites have been talking about alleged coup plots by the opposition since 2014.

Georgian Security Service accuses Georgian Legion and others of plotting coup

Georgia’s State Security Service (SSG) has claimed to be investigating an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government by Ukraine’s deputy director of counterintelligence, the Georgian Legion, and a former bodyguard of Mikheil Saakashvili. The SSG claimed that ‘certain groups in and outside Georgia’ were conspiring to violently topple the government in October–December through public uproar generated by accusing the government of being pro-Russian. The SSG did not provide evidence to suppo

OC MediaShota Kincha