Georgia’s currently imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili on Friday claimed he had refused to be testified by the country’s State Security Service over his claims last month that a Russian subversive group was present in Georgia with a goal to spark an unrest. 

In his social media post, Saakashvili, who was arrested in Tbilisi in 2021 on his clandestine return, said the current Georgian Dream authorities had not arrested “any Russian spies” while in office over the past 11 years, and instead was “prosecuting” the Georgian “patriots” who he said were protecting the interests of Georgia and Ukraine. 

In his comments last month Saakashvili claimed the alleged subversive group was “armed” and subordinated to the First Main Division of the Russian Army, also calling for a “civil defence hotline”, which the third President said would be used by the public to provide information about “any anti-Georgian sentiments” from the “100,000 Russians” he said had entered Georgia following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.