FSB Exposes Georgian Intelligence Network Operating in Russia

The Russian FSB has given details of the exposure and arrest of what it describes as a network of Georgian intelligence agents operating on Russian territory. A report on a military website tells of a Georgian intelligence agent who bought a caf in Vladikavkaz where he acquired information of a military-political nature from acquaintances. Some agents were instructed to film strategic facilities in South Ossetia and other parts of the South Federal District and were given monetary rewards for their work, whereas others were given tasks to set up a network of agents to gather intelligence about Russian army units in the North Caucasus, the report said. The following is the text of the report entitled: “An exposed ‘underground agent’ of the Georgian intelligence services gathered information in a caf he acquired in Vladikavkaz”, published by the Interfax-AVN military news agency on 13 August; subheadings have been inserted editorially:

Moscow, 13 August, Interfax-AVN. The Russian FSB reports further details of the exposure of a network of Georgian intelligence agents on Russian territory. This “underground agent” of the Georgian intelligence services had acquired a caf in Vladikavkaz to gather his military-political information.

Meetings at caf

The deputy head of the operational directorate of the Georgian intelligence services, Zaza Kherkeladze, who was arrested by the Russian FSB, had been operating in Russia underground. About a year ago he acquired a Russian passport and bought a caf in Vladikavkaz for 6,000 dollars, allocated by the Georgian intelligence services. The Izvestiya newspaper reports today [13 August] that a meeting took place in this caf between the “underground agent” and agents who recruited him. At the caf he also gathered information from visitors who had had too much to drink or were very talkative, some of them in high places.

During the course of the investigation, the detainee admitted that he had been gathering military-political information and that he had made the acquaintance of people from the law-enforcement bodies or the power structures.

Another detainee, Aleksandr Khachirov, was an Ossetian taxi- driver and often took his clients from Vkladikavkaz to the Rokskiy tunnel to South Ossetia and on to Georgia. He was recruited in 2004. Recently the Georgian intelligence services provided him with a task to film the Rokskiy tunnel, which is the only route linking Vladikavkaz and Tskhinvali. His vehicle contained three hidden video cameras (in the radiator, the rear-view mirror and the rear off- side door). He switched on the apparatus as he passed through the tunnel. When the reel in the camera ran out, the agent drove to Gori in Georgia where a regular officer Zurab Otiashvili supplied him with a new one.

The FSB believes that the Georgian military needed to gather such information about the Rokskiy tunnel in case they wanted to destroy or capture it. Should they carry out such intentions, the 58th army of the Russian Armed Forces would not be able to assist the peacekeepers and protect the people of Tskhinvali.

On Tuesday [12 August] the PRC (Public Relations Centre) of the Russian FSB reported that by coordinated measures they had exposed and thwarted the intelligence activities inside Russian territory of a number of members and agents of the Georgian special services who were engaged in gathering military-political information on Russian territory; in particular they had tried to obtain information about military and strategic facilities in the South Federal District.

Ten agents arrested

FSB Director Aleksandr Bortnikov informed the Russian president on Monday [11 August] that the Russian security services had arrested ten agents of the Georgian special services who “were conducting reconnaissance of military facilities and preparing terrorist acts, including on Russian territory”. “All the agents had made confessions,” Bortnikov noted. Furthermore, he said, a member of the Georgian special services who “had been operating underground on Russian territory and was in charge of these agents” had also been arrested.

The Russian FSB PRC has also revealed some details about the arrested men and the nature of their intelligence activities on Russian territory.

“During the course of targeted research it was revealed that a regular officer of the Georgian Foreign Intelligence Services, Kherkeladze, who had been operating underground in Russia, had been arrested and was under investigation,” the report of the FSB PRC noted in a report that reached Interfax on Tuesday. According to the report, the detainee admitted that his rank was deputy head of that service’s directorate. In 2008, on an instruction of the deputy head of Georgian intelligence, he was sent to Russia to “work underground”, where with the assistance of a Georgian intelligence agent from among Russian citizens he illegally acquired the passport of a Russian citizen.

The Georgian “underground agent” was faced with the task to set up a network of agents to gather intelligence about Russian army units and men in the North Caucasus, to monitor the movements of the South Ossetian president and his closest circle and to study the socio-political situation in the region. He was arrested in 2008.

Espionage equipment in car

As a consequence, the FSB PRC reports, other Georgian intelligence agents were arrested and later confessed. For example, Russian citizen Khachirov said during the investigation that he had been recruited in 2004 in Georgia by members of the Georgian special services. His vehicle had been fitted with espionage technology to take secret video footage of the Nizhniy Zamarag international vehicle control point, the Rokskiy tunnel security system and military facilities of the 58th Army. In Georgia members of the special services removed the film and supplied the agent with new equipment for video recording.

On 11 June this year at a regular meeting place the agent was given a task of the Georgian special services to bring into Russian territory an industrially produced mine ready for use. He was arrested as he entered Russian territory.

In July, agent Imerdishvili, a Russian army lieutenant-colonel, was exposed. Following his arrest he admitted that he had been recruited by members of Georgian intelligence in January 2006 during a visit to his relatives in Georgia. Acting on their instructions, he gathered information of a military nature and selected candidates from among Russian servicemen for recruiting by the Georgian intelligence services. In order to pass on the information he had gathered he made over ten visits to Georgia for meetings with representatives of the special services. For the information he acquired he was given a cash renumeration to the sum of 500 dollars for each task.

Organizing armed resistance

A Russian citizen, Ramzan Turkoshvili, who was linked with the illegal armed formations, was exposed and arrested by the FSB while selecting leaders of such formations. He admitted that he had been recruited by the Georgian special services with the immediate participation of one of the terrorist leaders who was in hiding in the Pankisi Gorge, Khangashvili. The agent had been given the task to seek out extremist minded individuals in Ingushetia and other republics of the South Federal District in order to set up a bandit underground and to organize armed resistance to the federal authorities. Furthermore, he had to make contacts between the Georgian special services and active members of illegal armed formations inside Russian territory.

An agent of the Georgian special services, a Russian citizen Alkhanashvili, was also exposed and arrested. He admitted cooperating with Georgian intelligence and said that he had been given a task to gather information about emigres from Georgia who were living in Chechnya and Ingushetia, particularly those working in the state power and administrative bodies, the law-enforcement structures and the army. In addition, he monitored the development of the socio-political situation in the Chechen Republic. Members of the Georgian special services held meetings and gave instructions to the agent in Georgia and in Azerbaijan. The agent was able to receive 2,000 dollars for fulfilling these tasks.

According to the Russian FSB PRC, “the Georgian special services are using all available ways and means to recruit Russian military servicemen,” in particular they set up compromising situations with the relatives of these servicemen living in Georgia. An example of this, the Russian counter-intelligence services note, was an attempt to recruit Lt-Col I.T.Kurshubadze. This Russian serviceman was in Georgia with relatives on private business. As he was leaving Georgia he was offered a direct recruitment proposal by members of the Georgian special services to work against Russia. He turned down this offer. The members of the Georgian special services then began to create obstacles to prevent his return to Russia, trying to persuade him not to go back, preventing him from crossing the border, deliberately damaging his passport and threatening his relatives. The Russian FSB is carrying out investigative measures on all these cases.

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Originally published by Interfax-AVN military news agency website, Moscow, in Russian 0844 13 Aug 08.

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