State Security Service head: occupation of Abkhazia, Tskhinvali region by Russia “main threat” to Georgia's statehood
Liluashvili noted in 2021 Russian heavy weapons and military contingents were still “illegally stationed” in the occupied territories of Georgia with intensive military exercises and the process of militarisation taking place on the ground. Photo: State Security Service
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The head of the State Security Service of Georgia, Grigol Liluashvili, on Friday said the occupation of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia by Russia was the main threat to Georgia's statehood.
Liluashvili noted in 2021 Russian heavy weapons and military contingents were still “illegally stationed” in the occupied territories of Georgia with intensive military exercises and the process of militarisation taking place on the ground.
The occupying forces continued to make illegal arrests. The illegal so-called ‘borderisation’ continued. The main goal of this was to inflame the feeling of insecurity in the population, discredit state institutions and spread nihilism in the public”, he said when presenting the 2021 report of the State Security Service to the Parliament.
The head of the State Security Service noted that at the end of 2021, a total of 7 citizens of Georgia were in illegal detention, including Irakli Bebua, whose freedom was “illegally” restricted by the occupation regime for a period of 9 years.
I would like to assure, first of all, the families of the illegally detained persons, as well as the honourable MPs, that all citizens of Georgia will be released from illegal detention. The state of Georgia has the power and practice to implement it”, Liluashvili concluded.
US foreign and national security policy expert and former US Ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker on Sunday said Russia's “imperialist wars” against its neighbours had not started in Ukraine but had “happened” in Georgia, and “we can't forget that Russia is still in Georgia”.
Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili and MPs on Friday met local self-government officials and citizens to discuss the current circumstances and needs of the residents living in villages located near the occupation line separating central Georgia's Russian-occupied region of Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) from the rest of the country.
A six-member delegation of the European Parliament, on a visit to Georgia, on Thursday observed the consequences of the Russian aggression in the country by visiting the occupation line near the central Georgian village of Odzisi.
Russian occupation forces carried out illegal ‘borderisation’ activities near central Georgia’s Gori Municipality village of Zardiantkari, adjacent to the administrative boundary line separating the Government-controlled territory from the Russian-occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region, on Sunday.
The head of the State Security Service of Georgia, Grigol Liluashvili, on Friday said the law enforcement officers have been trying to “filter out unwanted guests” and noted there have been “zero” crime statistics of incoming tourists.
Our colleagues have pledged and expressed commitment to oppose the ongoing occupation in Georgia through international instruments, the country should be “safeguarded” under international resolutions, the Georgian parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili said on Friday after bilateral meetings within the framework of the 145th Inter-Parliamentary Union assembly in Rwanda.
Nikoloz Samkharadze, the Georgian parliament's foreign affairs committee chair on Saturday said the visit of the Georgian parliamentary delegation to the 145th Inter-Parliamentary Union assembly in Rwanda has been “quite productive” and the widespread support for the country’s territorial integrity - “encouraging”.
The European Parliament on Thursday agreed not to accept travel documents that Russia has issued in the areas it illegally occupies in Ukraine and Georgia, the press office of the EU legislative body said.
The European Council and European Parliament on Thursday reached a provisional agreement on non-acceptance of Russian travel documents issued in the occupied territories of Ukraine and Georgia.
The Georgian State Security Service said 44 persons had been illegally arrested by Russian occupation forces in the vicinity of central Georgia’s occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region, and 13 adjacent to the occupied Abkhazia in the north-west of the country, in its annual report for 2022.