Tbilisi: Georgia’s state security service announced on Wednesday that it is investigating a plot to assassinate former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is also the honorary chairman of the governing Georgian Dream party.
In a Facebook post, the State Security Service stated that it was probing criminal activities aimed at “violently overthrowing” the government and inciting unrest. This included a scheme to murder Ivanishvili, the country’s wealthiest individual, who founded the Georgian Dream party and served as prime minister from October 2012 to November 2013.
Ivanishvili, a 68-year-old billionaire who accumulated his wealth in Russia during the 1990s, re-entered the political scene this spring as a vocal advocate for a controversial bill on “foreign agents.” The bill mandates that organizations receiving over 20% of their funding from abroad must register as “agents of foreign influence.” This legislation sparked massive protests in Tbilisi and plunged the South Caucasus country into political turmoil.
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The security service did not name any suspects in its announcement. However, independent Caucasus news site OC-Media reported that at least six individuals had been summoned for questioning, citing a lawyer and two of the summoned individuals. The report mentioned that most of these individuals had fought against Russia in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s SBU security service did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Similarly, the Georgian State Security Service, which did not mention Ukraine in its post, did not immediately reply to an emailed request for comment.
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Tinatin Bokuchava, leader of the United National Movement (UNM) opposition party, dismissed the reports of a coup plot as an “absurd delusion and constant conspiracy theory” propagated by Ivanishvili ahead of the parliamentary elections due by October. Bokuchava was quoted by Georgia’s Interpress news agency, asserting that the reports were indicative of “Russian-style propaganda, what our Western partners call hybrid warfare,” intended to deceive the public and maintain Georgian Dream’s grip on power.
Georgian authorities have frequently accused Georgians based in Ukraine and fighting against Russia of plotting a coup in Georgia. While Tbilisi has expressed opposition to Russia’s war, it has not imposed sanctions against Moscow over the conflict.
