Tskhinvali Comments on Spy Suspect’s Arrest

The State Security Committee of breakaway South Ossetia said that reports of the planned liquidation of Dimitri Sanakoev – the Tbilisi-loyal, self-imposed president of South Ossetia – is yet another provocation staged by the Georgian side, the South Ossetian Press and Information Committee reported on December 1.

“The State Security Committee of South Ossetia considers those accusations that the Georgian special services voiced, with the help of a certain Kakha Bagauri, absurd,” the South Ossetian State Security Service said in a statement issued on November 30.

The Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) said on November 30 that it arrested Kakha Bagauri, a Georgian citizen, on charges of collaberating with “the special services of the Russian Federation and unrecognized South Ossetian authorities.” The Georgian Interior Ministry also claimed that Bagauri was instructed to recruit “Chechen hitmen with the aim of liquidating Dimitri Sanakoev.”

“The Georgian law enforcement agencies could not even clearly explain  where and how Bagauri, who has nothing to do with the Republic of South Ossetia, was arrested,” the South Ossetian State Security Committee said. 

According to the Georgian Interior Ministry, Bagauri, 29, was providing information about the location of strategic Georgian facilities to Russian special service operatives in South Ossetia “for carrying out acts of sabotage.”

The Interior Ministry has disseminated video footage that shows Bagauri confessing that he has been cooperating with the special services in breakaway South Ossetia since 2005.

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