Georgian Dream passed the Russian law, which prohibits free and critical opinions in Georgia, depriving the people of Georgia of the path to the European Union.
Today, the Parliament will hear the annual report of the State
Security Service at the joint session of three committees. In violation of the Rules of Procedures of the Parliament of Georgia, instead of the Head of the Service, Grigol Liluashvili, First Deputy Head Alexi Batiashvili will present the report.
The
2023 activity report of the State
Security Service is still formal
and extremely general. The very
sparse content of the document, devoid of specificity,
cannot create a
real idea for the public about the activities of the Service or provide the
Parliament of Georgia with the volume of information that the latter needs for the democratic
parliamentary control over the State Security
Service.
The
annual report of the State Security Service consists of several
chapters. As in previous years, the document describes the threats facing the country,
but mostly without any specifics. The main flaw of the document is that the
report does not specify what the threat is and where it comes from, what
actions the Service
took to respond to such threats, and how effective its actions were. The
document is limited to extremely general phrases, such as: "various internal and external
actors", "individual destructive forces of foreign countries",
"appropriate" or "complex" measures were taken.
According
to the report, "there were attempts by various external and internal
actors to escalate the political situation in Georgia and to prepare the ground
and mobilize resources for the
violent change of the government."
However, no other specific information is provided.
The
2023 activity report effectively repeats the main points of the 2022 report. Among
the main security problems mentioned
are the Russian occupation and the Russian military bases illegally deployed in the
occupied territories of the country. However, threats from Russia are discussed
only in the part of the report related to the occupied territories.
In
other parts of the report: "Disinformation and other dangers of hybrid
war", "Disinformation and propaganda" "The so-called soft power and
covert operations", "Cyber
security" and others, the Russian Federation is not named as a source of
danger. In these cases, the State Security Service uses a general term such as
"foreign country". In some cases, it can be assumed that the citizens
of a foreign country imply
citizens of the Russian Federation, although the State
Security Service avoids mentioning Russia as a threat (except in
the chapters related to the occupied territories). For example, the report
states that "operational control was
carried out over the cases of establishing legal entities in the
country by foreign nationals and measures were taken to prevent the possible
involvement of Georgian companies in the process of circumvention of sanctions."[1]
Unlike
previous years' reports, the 2023 report has a less informative section on the
fight against corruption. The annual report does not give us the slightest idea
about the exercise
of parliamentary control over the Security
Service. The
document contains only statistical information, while the content of the part relating
to control is vague.
The
analysis of the report once again supports the opinion that the agency's
resources are spent irrationally and its interest is not focused on identifying
or fighting real
threats, but on discrediting specific political groups and civil society
organizations.
[1] Report
of the State Security Service of Georgia,
2023, p. 22, available at: https://web-api.parliament.ge/storage/files/shares/angarishebi/usaprtxoeba/2023.pdf
5 თებერვალს, ,,ქართული ოცნების“ ლიდერმა მამუკა მდინარაძემ საზოგადოებას ახალი რეპრესიული კანონმდებლობის მიღება დაუანონსა.
On February 3,
after the party session, the leader of the Georgian Dream, Mamuka
Mdinaradze, announced the
tightening of
the repressive policy
by introducing amendments to legislation.
არასამთავრობო ორგანიზაციების სამართლებრივი დახმარების ქსელის იურისტები განაგრძობენ მშვიდობიანი დემონსტრანტების უფლებების დაცვას.