TBILISI, August 4 – In a wide-ranging interview, Georgian security analyst Andro Gotsiridze said there is growing fear that the country’s security apparatus is no longer functioning in service of the state, but instead serving a narrow political elite.
Speaking to Interpressnews, Gotsiridze painted a bleak picture of Georgia’s deteriorating defense and intelligence institutions, warning of weakened state structures and growing political opportunism.
He pointed to the 2019 Chorchana incident, when Georgian police established a new checkpoint near the boundary with the Russian-occupied region of South Ossetia. The operation, carried out during Giorgi Gakharia’s term as Interior Minister, allegedly proceeded without the knowledge of the State Security Service, military leadership, or even the prime minister. “Imagine,” Gotsiridze said, “a fortified checkpoint was built with police and equipment, and yet no one in the defense or intelligence chain claims to have been informed.”
Gakharia, who later became prime minister, is now the subject of two separate investigations related to the incident, timed, Gotsiridze notes, to coincide with his political break from the ruling Georgian Dream party. He called the delayed inquiries “a cynical manipulation of public trust.”
Gakharia declined to testify before the so-called Tsulukiani Committee in parliament. The Prosecutor’s Office later opened its own investigation. Today, he leads a centrist opposition party polling at around 10 percent.
Meanwhile, the ruling party continues to justify its actions as protecting sovereignty, frequently invoking the term “deep state” to explain its policies and criticizing Western interference. Gotsiridze warns this rhetoric echoes Kremlin propaganda, which portrays Russia as merely defending itself against Western provocations.
Despite recent NATO exercises on Georgian soil, Gotsiridze argues that trust between Georgia and its Western partners is rapidly eroding. (Interpressnews/Koba Bendeliani.)
