TBILISI: Georgia has leveled serious allegations against a senior Ukrainian official, accusing them of orchestrating plans to overthrow the government through mass unrest. This development marks another episode in the escalating tensions between the two ex-Soviet nations.
Georgia has been under scrutiny for its alleged cooperation with the Kremlin, even though Russian forces have been stationed in separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia since the 2008 conflict when Moscow invaded the small Caucasus nation.
According to Georgian security services, Giorgi Lortkipanidze, the deputy chief of Ukraine’s military counterintelligence and a former deputy interior minister of Georgia, is allegedly plotting “destabilization aimed at a violent overthrow of the government.”
The security services further claimed that individuals from Georgia, engaged in combat against Russian forces in Ukraine, including a bodyguard of Georgia’s incarcerated former president, Mikhail Saakashvili, were among those receiving training near Ukraine’s border with Poland.
Ukraine has been persistently calling for Georgia to release Saakashvili, who has since become a Ukrainian national and a prominent advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Kyiv contends that Georgian authorities are acting at the behest of the Kremlin and has demanded Saakashvili’s transfer to a foreign medical facility for treatment.
In response to these allegations, Georgia condemned what it described as “an extreme form of escalation in diplomatic relations.”
Georgia Levels Serious Allegations Against Ukraine
The Georgian security service reported that anti-government protests are being planned for October and December, coinciding with the European Commission’s expected decision on Georgia’s application for EU membership. The service suggested that the plot is being orchestrated with coordination and funding from a foreign country.
While the European Union recognized Georgia’s “European perspective” last year, it deferred the country’s membership application while granting candidacy to fellow ex-Soviet nations, Ukraine and Moldova. This decision has triggered mass anti-government protests in Tbilisi, with critics accusing the government of backsliding on its democratic commitments and undermining Georgia’s EU membership aspirations.
Earlier this month, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell remarked that “there is still quite a bit of work to be done” by Tbilisi to attain formal candidate status within the EU.
