Georgian Intelligence to Be Absorbed by State Security Service
Georgia’s Intelligence Service, currently operating as a special government body under the prime minister, will soon become part of the State Security Service and be renamed the National Intelligence Agency.
A legislative package amending 26 relevant laws has already been submitted to Georgian Dream’s one-party parliament with plans to pass it through standard procedure and enact it on July 1.
The initiators and authors are GD lawmakers Aleksandre Tabatadze, Tengiz Sharmanashvili, Gia Benashvili, Archil Gorduladze, Rati Ionatamishvili, Ioseb Jorbenadze, Genrieta Tsitsava, Zviad Shalamberidze, and Viktor Japaridze.
Established in 2005, the Georgia’s Intelligence Service has operated as a separate body under the Prime Minister’s authority since 2013. It is distinct from the State Security Service’s counterintelligence department.
The explanatory note of the package claims that the State Security and Intelligence Service have “closely connected” functions and tasks that serve a common goal in “a series of cases.” The note argues that merging the two is “feasible” and would “increase efficiency.” It also claims that a similar design exists in several EU and NATO countries, including Austria, Turkey, Canada, Lithuania, Greece, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Croatia.
The current law states that the Intelligence Service operates in the political, economic, technical-scientific, military-political, informative, and ecological spheres and contributes to the international fight against terrorism. It is also responsible for counterintelligence. Its primary functions include identifying foreign threats and gathering and providing intelligence to relevant senior Georgian officials. These functions remain unchanged in the draft legislation.
The changes, however, place the Intelligence Service under the full authority of the SSSG, which critics have long viewed as closely aligned with the ruling party’s political interests. The transfer of oversight of the Intelligence Service to the SSSG – including the power to appoint and dismiss the agency’s head and deputies, as well as determine its staffing levels – is concerning due to the SSSG’s perceived role in monitoring government critics.
The SSSG is currently headed by Anri Okhanashvili, who assumed the role in April amid Georgian Dream’s reshuffling. One of his deputies is Irakli Beraia, who himself has led Georgia’s Intelligence Service since 2024.
“In reality, this merger means the abolishment of the intelligence service because the ‘witch hunters’ in the country won’t allocate attention or resources to foreign intelligence and address real threats,” wrote international relations expert Zurab Batiashvili on social media. “When this agency was created, its primary focus was gathering intelligence on Russia. Now that the Georgian Dream has become a Russian branch, they won’t spy on their mates, will they?”
Teona Akubardia, a member of the opposition Gakharia for Georgia party, called the move political. “It is political because national security, as it is known, no longer exists – only the security of Bidzina Ivanishvili’s regime,” she said.
“To this end, they are allocating all internal security resources under the SSSG to protect the regime rather than Georgia from the threats it currently faces and will continue to face even more in the future. This is especially important as we witness fundamental changes in the global security architecture.”
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- 10/04/2025 – Consolidating Autocracy? GD Reshuffle Leaves Experts Guessing
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