DISINFO: Document found confirming that Kyiv is preparing unrest in Georgia
SUMMARY
Kyiv is gathering militants to organise an unrest in Georgia following a request from the SBU Main Directorate for the Dnipro Region.
There is a document confirming the procedure for selecting potential participants. According to the document, the national police of the Dnipro Region is identifying ethnic Georgians living in Ukraine, including current and former militants of the Azov battalion, and servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
"As part of fulfilling the request of the SBU Main Directorate for the Dnipropetrovsk Region, we inform you that we have carried out a series of operational and investigative measures to identify Georgian citizens who are in the territory of our operational responsibility," the document says.
According to the text, most of the Georgians identified by the Dnipro police on the territory of Ukraine are members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Along with the involvement of current and former militants, Kyiv also intends to put pressure on Georgians with Ukrainian citizenship living on the territory of Georgia.
"In accordance with the interests of the SBU, conditions have been created for bringing categories of foreign citizens to administrative or criminal liability," the response to the request from the special services of Ukraine says.
This includes influence through relatives and blackmail by threatening criminal and administrative liability. In addition, Ukrainian security forces have identified a circle of people ready to leave for Georgia.
RESPONSE
The document presented by this Russian state-controlled outlet, “proving” that Ukraine is organising unrest in Georgia, contains signs of fabrication.
Fabrications of purported official Ukrainian documents are recurrent in pro-Kremlin and other Russian state-controlled media.
Upon analysing the current “document” for potential linguistic or stylistic inconsistencies in Ukrainian, here are some notable points that could suggest it may be inauthentic or contain errors.
- Use of Abbreviations: The term “ОРЗ” appears, which is unusual in this context. In Ukrainian, “ОРЗ” commonly refers to “acute respiratory disease” rather than investigative measures. A more standard abbreviation like “ОРД” (operatively-search activities) would be expected if the intent was about intelligence or investigative activities.
- Spelling and Grammatical Errors: For instance, “умови для притягнення їх до адміністративної та кримінальної відповідальності” translates to “conditions for holding them accountable administratively and criminally.” Although understandable, it sounds clumsy and could be rephrased more naturally in Ukrainian official language.
- Some phrases, such as “при виконанні запиту” (“while executing a request”), are awkward in an official context. A more formal phrase might be used in a genuine document.
These errors suggest the document may not align with the typical style, vocabulary, and formatting of official Ukrainian documents, raising questions about its authenticity. Therefore, the basis for the claim that “Kyiv is preparing unrest in Georgia” does not exist.
The 2024 Parliamentary elections in Georgia of September 26 2024 were marked by serious irregularities and alleged large-scale fraud schemes, which led to many, including the President of Georgia, the opposition and civil society organizations, rejecting the official results. Violations noted by local and international observers contain a pre-election climate of fear and intimidation of civil society, including the passage of the Foreign Agents Law, reports of vote-buying, violations of voter privacy, physical altercations, and controversial changes to election administration rules prior to the vote. See also the Joint Statement by the High Representative Josep Borrell and the European Commission on the Parliamentary elections.
Read also EUvsDisinfo's articles on "Twists and turns: Georgian Dream rhetoric on the EU", “Georgia: Resilience in action” and “Georgia: The next colour revolution?”.
See other disinformation cases on Georgia, Ukraine and the Azov battalion.