Bombs & Who Planted Them

OPED

The briefing held last week by the State Security Service was like a thunderstorm on a clear sunny day. At a time when the population is busy meeting the political parties and discussing the ratings of the politicians, suddenly the Security Officer announced the foiling of a terrorist attack and the arrest of seven Georgian citizens who had been participating in it. More importantly, at the end of the meeting that same person announced sensational information: to a journalist’s question about where the terrorist act was originally planned, he answered – Ukraine.

According to the map presented at the briefing, the terrorists aimed to blow up the gas pipeline near Saguramo village which transports Russian gas to Armenia. As for Ukraine, this country was named as the central place where the terrorist act was planned only because one of the detained suspects had visited the country often. The claim was followed by the expected political and judicial fuss, with the governmental and oppositional experts offering diametrically opposed ideas about the unsuccessful attack. The experts supporting the government have suspicions about the long term plans of the opposition, while the oppositional ones point out the lack of evidence and the possible pre-electoral intentions.

For instance, expert Mamuka Areshidze believes that it is not proven that the representatives of former government now residing in Ukraine could be behind this initiative. Areshidze told Commersant that “there is no direct evidence supporting the idea that the order was given in Ukraine. However, there are questions.” Expert Nodar Kharshiladze thinks that the announcement made in the Security Office about the prevention of the terrorist attack is closely linked with the pre-electoral campaign of the government. “This is a typical attempt of pre-electoral agitation; the government will try to leave the impression it discovered the plot. It is a cheap political trick and is aimed at discrediting political opponents,” said Kharshiladze.

The day following the briefing, Georgian soldiers living in Ukraine responded. One of the members of the Georgian National Legion fighting for the Ukrainian government, Vano Nadiradze, wrote a facebook post saying “Irakli Bagishvili and Zebo, who were helping us, have been arrested in Georgia.” Friends of Bagishvili said that he had really helped the Georgians fighting in Ukraine by sending them warm clothes and that he was under the surveillance of the Georgian Special Services, who asked him to stop doing so.

Notably, the storage place for the explosive device mentioned by the Security Forces is one of those secret places which was created in different regions across Georgia on the order of ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili in 2008-2009 for resistance to possible new attacks from Russia. Investigators believe that the coordinates of this secret storage place were given to the suspects in Ukraine. However, the Georgian Dream government also has the exact details of these points; so blaming Ukraine and the Georgian fighters needs special justification.

It was also revealed that one of the suspects is accused by the investigators of not only terrorism but also the abuse of granted power – this person is Levan Mamporia, an officer of the Poti Patrol Police and a relative of the Minister of Defense, Levan Izoria. Minister Izoria made a statement, though not about his connection to the detained suspect, “When the State Security Service makes an announcement about avoiding a serious threat, naturally, I have absolute trust in it. There are specific circumstances and evidence and this is not just on the level of assumptions. Further information about the connections and where the suspects were given the orders will soon become public,” said Izoria.

But before the government releases the announced information the court has issued a two-month pretrial detention and has scheduled the next hearing for October 10th. At that time Georgia will already have a new government and whether this change will have influence on the decision to be made on October 10th is hard to predict, since it all depends on the government in power.

Zaza Jgarkava