Investigative commission registered in parliament on alleged ties between Georgian-Russian intelligence agencies

An investigative commission was registered in the Georgian parliament on Wednesday over alleged confidential connections between the special services of Georgia and Russia, following recent allegations by the arrested former security official, Soso Gogashvili, that Georgian and Russian intelligence agencies were cooperating to ensure aid for the latter to evade international sanctions imposed on it for invading Ukraine. 

The Lelo opposition party registered the initiative to create an investigative commission in the state legislature together with parliamentary opposition groups, with the document having the signatures of 51 opposition MPs, sufficient to set up the commission in the 150-member parliament. 

The commission creation issue is expected to be discussed at the next bureau session, with the ruling Georgian Dream party stating that there was need of such a commission as the allegations were “groundless, backed with no evidence”.