Are the Georgian special forces controlled by the FSB?

A big row has erupted in Georgia in connection with the expected transfer by the country's Attorney General to the Russian investigative authorities of the personal data of people who served in the Military Police of the Ministry of Defense during and after the five-day war in 2008.

This was stated by the former Chief of the General Staff of the Georgian Armed Forces, Giorgi Kalandadze (2007-2009), who now lives in Ukraine and is considered to be a member of the team of the governor of the Odessa region, Mikheil Saakashvili, and who has been actively involved in the planning of the military operations of volunteer groups (including Georgian units) in the war in Donbas.

Giorgi Kalandadze

According to Kalandadze, the Georgian General Prosecutor's Office has handed over to Moscow "top secret materials containing state secrets" in cooperation with the Russian law enforcement authorities for the murder  in Moscow of the former commander of the Georgian troops in Adjara, General Roman Dumbadze.

In 2004 Mikheil Saakashvili announced Roman Dumbadze to be his personal enemy, after he had supported the Adjarian leader, Aslan Abashidze. Dumbadze was sentenced to life imprisonment for treason, but during the 2008 war the authorities had to exchange him for captured Georgian soldiers. Dumbadze moved to Moscow, where he led a very secluded life.

Roman Dumbadze

On May 21st 2012 Dumbadze was killed on the Rublevskoye Highway in Moscow. Residents of Georgia suspected of the crime stated during the investigation that they had recruited a compatriot by paying him 100,000 euros. In April this year the Georgian Prosecutor General's Office arrested the ‘compatriot’ (whose name was not made public), who stated that he was a mediator, and he had received the task and money from the Chief of the Military Police, Megis Kardava, who had previously occupied top-level positions in the Interior Ministry structure, but fled the country immediately after the change of the authorities in October 2012.

The ‘compatriot’ does not know who gave Kardava, who is known for his probity, the task and the huge amount of money by local standards. Apparently, in the framework of the cooperation with the Russian law enforcement agencies, their Georgian colleagues gave Moscow some information about people who served in the military police, which was considered a part of the Defense Ministry's special forces.