Tbilisi Places Georgians Fighting for Ukraine on Wanted List

Georgia’s State Security Service (SSS) has emulated its Russian equivalents by placing around 300 fighters from the Georgian National Legion, that are fighting for Kyiv against Moscow on its wanted list, the commander of the legion said.

Mamuka Mamulashvili, commander of the Georgian Legion, told the independent Russian news site The Insider that some of those wanted are still in Ukraine, and he believed the SSS was working with the Russian authorities.

In February, it was reported that Russia had placed about 100 Georgians, including  Mamulashvili on its wanted list for their part in the war in Ukraine.

“I predicted this development [the criminal prosecution of Georgian citizens who fought on the side of Ukraine] after Russia began to put us [fighters of the Georgian Legion] on the wanted list. This was done so that the Georgian government would have grounds to arrest us.

“Russian and Georgian special services are working in sync today. Many of our guys who were returning to Georgia were advised by the Georgian special services to leave. They were told: ‘There are a lot of Russians here, we will no longer be able to protect you, we ask you to leave.’”

He added that he “[does] not rule out that some of the volunteers may be extradited to Russia.”

Nadim Khmaladze, a fighter who has since returned to Georgia, said on Saturday, July 20 that he was arrested by Georgian authorities “on charges of terrorism and [involvement in a] coup d’état.”

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Lasha Chigladze, another Georgian who fought in Ukraine, was questioned in the Tbilisi City Court over what the court claimed to be an investigation into his activities that started a year ago, also under coup d’état charges.

Mamulashvili said he wasn’t familiar with Khmaladze and Chigladze as they likely fought with other units in Ukraine.

Tbilisi’s ties with Moscow have grown in recent years despite the latter’s invasion of Georgia in 2008.

In May, the ruling Georgian Dream party adopted a “foreign agent” bill modeled on Moscow’s legislation that would require organizations receiving more than 20 percent of funding from overseas to register as “organizations serving the interests of a foreign power,” which sparked nationwide protests and drew widespread criticism from the West.

Following the bill’s adaptation, EU leaders said Georgia’s path to the bloc was “de facto” halted having previously been granted EU candidate status in December 2023.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), in its July 22 update, noted the similarities between Georgian statements and those in Moscow’s narrative against Ukraine in 2014. It said the latest moves by the ruling Georgian Dream party “plays into continued Russian hybrid operations to divide, destabilize, and weaken Georgia.”

“The Kremlin has routinely used the narrative of a ‘violent coup’ in Ukraine to misrepresent Ukraine’s 2014 Revolution of Dignity and protests for Ukrainian European Union integration and blames external actors for domestic protests, and the [Georgia's State Security Service’s] statements increasingly mirror Kremlin rhetoric.

“Increasingly overt efforts to censor pro-Western and pro-Ukraine voices in Georgia suggests that the Georgian Dream ruling party intends to purposefully derail long-term Georgian efforts for Euro-Atlantic integration, which plays into continued Russian hybrid operations to divide, destabilize, and weaken Georgia,” read the update.