Scandal over the Russian agent

Some days ago, Vladimir Sanakoev, who was a leading figure of the separatist South Ossetian regime before changing his position to actively support the Georgian side, made the confession that he was an agent of the Russian special services. As he claimed, he was planted into Georgian high level structures and was given special assignments. In September 2008, Vladimir Sanakoev fled from Georgia and went back to Russia and, as it appeared, his assignment was to hinder the peacekeeping process and support the idea of military confrontation. So far, the Kremlin has always been denying any kind of subversive activities in Georgia. It has also been denying the existence of an agents' network in Georgia. However, this revelation unveils Moscow’s real face. Of course, the Georgian authorities have mixed feelings. On one hand, Sanakoev’s statement proves factually that Russian agents were entering different structures in Georgia including the higher echelons. At the same time, this fact is not appreciated at all by the Georgian authorities because it means that they made a mistake when allowing Vladimir Sanakoev to become so deeply involved in Georgian policy at a very important level. That proves that either the Georgian special services were very naive or there was negligence on the part of Georgia’s leadership which allowed Sanakoev to play a leading role in the so called South Ossetian provisional administration (pro Georgia). The Georgian authorities say that Sanakoev is not a serious political figure and that he is fulfilling Russian special services orders right now, trying to discredit Georgia’s political leadership.

Of course Sanakoev’s open admission is no accident and the Georgian opposition is already using this fact to further criticize the ruling authorities. Sanakoev’s confession means that there are Russian agents in the Georgian leadership. It also gave ground to differently assess the situation over Tskhinvali region in 2004-2008. It looks like all of the political developments around the issue which took place from the Georgian side were long and controversial, and that in reality, deliberately or otherwise, Georgian leaders were conducting moves which were beneficial for Moscow. As analyst Paata Zakareishvili claims, Sanakoev’s activities completely destroyed Georgian – Ossetian relations. This project served the Russian interest.

The opposition also criticizes the ruling administration for supporting the provisional administration of South Ossetia and financing a project worth 7 mln GEL. Some opposition members think that other Russian agents could also be revealed and, ultimately, the scandalous situation might continue over this issue.