Farhad<p><strong><a href="https://venera.social/search?tag=Georgia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Georgia</span></a> accuses Ukrainian official of plotting coup</strong></p><p><br>Georgia on Monday accused a senior Ukrainian official of plotting to overthrow the Black Sea nation’s government by organising mass unrest, in the blatest episode of escalating tensions between the ex-Soviet countries.</p><p><a href="https://venera.social/search?tag=Kyiv" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Kyiv</span></a> said the claim was “untrue” and called it a Georgian attempt to “demonise” the war-torn country.</p><p>Tbilisi has been accused of cooperating with the <a href="https://venera.social/search?tag=Kremlin" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Kremlin</span></a> even though Russian forces have deployed to separatist regions of <a href="https://venera.social/search?tag=Abkhazia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Abkhazia</span></a> and South Ossetia since 2008, when <a href="https://venera.social/search?tag=Moscow" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Moscow</span></a> invaded the tiny <a href="https://venera.social/search?tag=Caucasus" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Caucasus</span></a> country.</p><p>Georgian security services said the deputy chief of Ukraine’s military counterintelligence and Georgia’s former deputy interior minister, Giorgi Lortkipanidze, were plotting “destabilisation aimed at a violent overthrow of the government.”</p><p>It said Georgians fighting Russian forces in <a href="https://venera.social/search?tag=Ukraine" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Ukraine</span></a>, including a bodyguard of Georgia’s jailed ex-president Mikhail Saakashvili, were among the conspirators being trained near Ukraine’s border with <a href="https://venera.social/search?tag=Poland" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Poland</span></a>.</p><p>Ukraine has repeatedly called for Georgia to release <a href="https://venera.social/search?tag=Saakashvili" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Saakashvili</span></a>, who is now a Ukrainian national and a top advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr <a href="https://venera.social/search?tag=Zelensky" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Zelensky</span></a>.</p><p>Kyiv has said that the Georgian authorities are “killing” the ailing politician on Kremlin orders and has demanded his transfer to a clinic abroad.</p><p>Georgia in turn has condemned what it said was “an extreme form of escalation in diplomatic relations”.</p><p>Georgia’s security service said anti-government protests “are being planned for October and December, when the European Commission is set to publish its decision on Georgia’s <a href="https://venera.social/search?tag=EU" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>EU</span></a> membership application.”</p><p>It said the plot “is being carried out with the coordination and funding from a foreign country.”</p><p>Ukraine denied the allegations.</p><p>“This information is untrue,” Kyiv’s foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said on Facebook.</p><p>“The current Georgian authorities are once again trying to demonise Ukraine in order to solve their internal political issues,” it said, adding:</p><p>“The Ukrainian state has not interfered, is not interfering and does not plan to interfere in Georgia’s internal affairs.”</p><p>The EU recognised Georgia’s “European perspective” last year, but deferred its membership application while granting candidacy to fellow ex-Soviet Ukraine and Moldova.</p><p>That has led to mass anti-government protests in Tbilisi, where the government is facing accusations of backsliding on its commitments to democracy and undermining Georgia’s EU membership bid.</p><p>Earlier in September, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said “there is still quite a bit of work to be done” by <a href="https://venera.social/search?tag=Tbilisi" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Tbilisi</span></a> to be granted formal candidate status.</p><p><a href="https://venera.social/search?tag=Politics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Politics</span></a> <a href="https://venera.social/search?tag=Surope" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Surope</span></a> <a href="https://venera.social/search?tag=NATO" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NATO</span></a></p>