Georgia’s State Security Service has called widespread criticism of its cooperation agreement with the Belarusian KGB – signed in 2016 but enacted this August – “disinformation” and a “discreditation attempt.”
Citing similar agreements with other countries, the SSS said there was nothing unusual in the deal.
Criticism has nevertheless mounted both at home and amongst Georgia’s most active friends and supporters especially in the context of transferring individuals private data and extraditions.
Prominent MEPs Marina Kaljurand and Viola von Cramon called the Georgian Government to cancel the agreement with Cramon decscribing the deal “scary.”
Former US ambassador to Georgia Ian Kelly also blasted the agreement. “Shameful indeed. The Georgian Government recently withdrew from an agreement brokered by the EU - if they don’t from this, it will be another sign that their priorities lie elsewhere,” he said in a tweet.
Lithuania’s Ambassador to Georgia Andrius Kalindra visited Chairman of the Georgian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee Irakli Samkharadze with a demarche over the Agreement.
“The fact of deepening of bilateral cooperation between Georgia and Belarusian security structures is concerning and it is directed against European values and neighbouring countries, including Lithuania”, Ambassador Kalindra was quoted on the website of the Embassy of Lithuania to Georgia.
Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatna Tsikhanouskaya, sent a letter to
the Georgian Foreign Ministry, calling to express “a clearly expressed position on the inadmissibility of using this agreement to issue information about Belarusian citizens and other cooperation that could negatively affect” Belarusians residing in Georgia.
Tsikhanouskaya’s adviser Franak Viačorka had earlier called the agreement “shameful.”
Droa leader Elene Khoshtaria called for immediate annulment of the agreement with European Georgia member Giorgi Kandekaki declaring it a “threat to Georgia’s national security and a de facto agreement with Russia’s FSB.”
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