Georgia State Security Service Arrests Senior Official for Passing Classified Data to European Intelligence Service

The SSSG on May 5 arrested Giorgi Udzilauri, head of the Finance Ministry's Investigative Service press office and a former public relations official at Bidzina Ivanishvili's Cartu Group, on charges of passing classified data to a foreign intelligence service for financial gain. SSSG First Deputy Head Lasha Maghradze stated Udzilauri used current and former official positions to systematically collect and transfer information on political and economic processes, law enforcement structures, and ethnic and religious minorities. The SSSG did not identify the foreign service; pro-government Rustavi 2 reported it was "one of the European countries" without naming it. Maghradze additionally stated Udzilauri was tasked with building media recruitment networks to gather intelligence on regional countries on behalf of the foreign service.