Russia’s occupation of Georgian territories remains main threat, says SSG
By Khatia Bzhalava
Tuesday, April 27
On Monday, the Deputy Head of the State Security Service (SSG), Aleksi Batiashvili, presented the annual 2020 report in the parliament, stating that the occupation of Georgia’s Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions by the Russian Federation is considered the country’s main threat. Batiashvili reviewed the security environment in the occupied territories.
The Deputy Head of the SSG stressed that the official Moscow continued the policy of de facto annexation of the occupied regions and supported the alienation of the population divided by the occupation line. On top of that, he also emphasized that amid the pandemic, the fundamental rights of ethnic Georgians were further restricted and their condition deteriorated.
Batiashvili stated that militarization and military exercises are actively carried out on the spot. “Russian occupation forces and heavy military equipment illegally deployed in the occupied regions are damaging the security environment on the ground, which is a regional threat and an international challenge,” the Deputy Head of the SSG said.
Batiashvili also touched upon the issues of the unlawful detention of Georgians by Russian occupying forces, the so-called bordereization, and other illegal activities on the ground. On April 25, SSG announced that Russian occupying forces had installed artificial barriers in the occupied territory near the village of Ghogheti in the Kareli Municipality.
As Batiasvili reported, in 2020, 64 cases of the so-called illegal detention in the occupied Tskhinvali region and 13 more cases in the occupied Abkhazia region were detected.
He stated that through the efforts of the central government of Georgia and international partners, tens of Georgian citizens have been released from illegal detention, however, some illegally detained Georgian citizens were given long prison sentences, including the cases of Zaza Gakheladze and Irakli Bebua. “The occupation regime showed a particularly unfair and inhumane approach towards these individuals,” Batashvili said.
