Georgian authorities allege assassination plot on billionaire Ivanishvili, Georgian Legion commander says investigation likely to blame him

RU

The State Security Service of Georgia (SSSG) has issued a statement saying that it is investigating alleged plans for “a terrorist attack and a plot to overthrow the government,” as well as the preparation of an assassination attempt on billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, the honorary chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party and a figure widely rumored to have close ties to Moscow. The SSSG claims that the plot was organized and financed by former high-ranking Georgian government officials and former Interior Ministry officers who are now in Ukraine.

Mamuka Mamulashvili, commander of the Georgian National Legion, which is fighting against Russian forces in Ukraine, told The Insider that he is aware of interrogations of three people in Georgia who were asked about his involvement in the alleged plans. Mamulashvili believes he is about to be accused of preparing an assassination attempt on Ivanishvili.

“Right now, interrogations are ongoing and it is already known that they were asked about me during the interrogations, whether they have any connections with me. The conversation is about some terrorist [attack] against a pro-Russian oligarch, and on this matter, they are interrogating three people. It has already been stated. They have a non-disclosure agreement, but one of them told his lawyer that they were asked about Mamuka. [...]

I have never organized any assassination attempts. Our work is limited to killing Russian terrorists on the territory of Ukraine.”

Mamulashvili also said that Russian law enforcement agencies had obtained the personal data of 300 Georgian volunteers fighting for Ukraine, and that the Georgian authorities themselves provided this information to Russia.

«We know that criminal cases have been initiated. These people were identified by Georgia specifically because many of the soldiers have personal files that can only be obtained from the Ministry of Defense. Without the personal consent of the person whose file is requested, they would not be able to even carry them out [of the building]. This means that these files were extracted by special services and handed over to the Russians because they could not identify so many [volunteers] by themselves. They have initiated cases against 300 people in general.

Russia has initiated cases against 300 people and Georgia facilitated this. We see this based on the case details. There was a Russian broadcast claiming they had allegedly captured some settlement. One of the soldiers had a personal file with him. He opened it and it was a personal file from the Georgian Ministry of Defense. [...]

[These fighters] are being sought in Russia, and it is quite possible that they will be sought in Georgia as well.

These fighters are wanted in Russia and, quite possibly, they will be wanted in Georgia as well. We do not know yet whether cases have been brought against these people in Georgia. They have not been in Georgia yet so they have not been detained.”

Earlier in July, two Georgian citizens who had fought on the side of Ukraine in the past (but not as part of Mamulashvili's Georgian National Legion) said they had been summoned for questioning by the SSSG.

“Now they told me that an investigation was launched a year ago about the coup d'état. They had some questions about it, they were limited to when I left, when I came back from Ukraine, there were [also] some general questions,” one of the interrogated, Lasha Chigladze, told the Georgian TV channel Mtavari.

In August 2022, the so-called “Luhansk Peoples Republic (LPR) people’s militia” circulated a video showing Georgian-language documents allegedly found in Lysychansk, a city in Ukraine’s Luhansk Oblast that had been captured by Russian troops shortly before. The documents turned out to be the personal file of Georgian military instructor Mikheil Kamkhadze. Journalists at Mtavari contacted Kamkhadze, who said that the folder with his file was kept in the personnel department of the Georgian Defense Ministry.

“I physically didn’t have access to it. After my contract was not renewed, I left for Ukraine. I suspect that information leaked from [Ukraine] that such a person had arrived and that he was training people. The information was demanded from there. These documents were then removed and taken out of the archive, most likely for a lot of money,” Kamkhadze said.