Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has tapped Mamuka Mdinaradze, leader of the ruling party’s parliamentary majority, as the new head of the State Security Service (SSSG), minutes after former chief Anri Okhanashvili announced his resignation just five months into the role.
Okhanashvili announced his resignation in a statement posted on August 23 on the Facebook page of the SSSG, saying he decided to resign “after consulting with the ruling team” and will become Kobakhidze’s adviser on national security matters.
The resignation statement was initially released without naming Okhanashvili as its author, briefly causing confusion until his name was added. Shortly after, GD Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze held a solo briefing to announce that Mamuka Mdinaradze had been nominated to replace him.
Anri Okhanashvili was appointed to lead the security agency in April, after Grigol Liluashvili, who had led the SSSG from 2019, was removed from post in a broader Georgian Dream reshuffle. He assumed the post following a similarly short tenure as Georgian Dream’s justice minister, a position he had held since November 2024.
In his resignation letter, Okhanashvili, who joined Georgian Dream in 2016, does not specify why he left another high-level post but thanks the ruling party and its billionaire founder, Bidzina Ivanishvili.
“I would like to express special gratitude to Mr. Bidzina Ivanishvili for his trust and constant support in my political endeavors,” the letter says.
Anri Okhanashvili’s resignation continues a string of high-level departures from the Georgian Dream government since early this year, raising speculation about internal power struggles. His exit also comes amid the resignation this week of the Special Penitentiary Service chief and other senior prison officials amid an investigation into the beating of Giorgi Bachiashvili, an ex-associate of Bidzina Ivanishvili jailed for embezzling cryptocurrency. Bachiashvili has previously claimed that Okhanashvili, while serving as State Security Service chief, was aboard a plane used in his alleged abduction to Georgia in late May.
In the August 23 briefing, Kobakhidze thanked Okhanashvili for his modest tenure at the State Security Service, but also did not give any details about his resignation. Kobakhidze added that Okhanashvili will take on an “important mission” as his adviser on security matters.
Naming Mamuka Mdinaradze to the SSSG chief post, Kobakhidze said he “does not require a special introduction,” noting that Mdinaradze has “many years of experience in law enforcement agencies.”
Mdinaradze, one of the party’s leading voices and currently the parliamentary majority leader, must be approved by the one-party parliament, which resumes work in September.
Kobakhidze said “very important steps” have been taken in recent months to combat crime, “including fighting corruption, drug-related crime and organized crime,” adding, “although the results are already impressive, we need additional efforts to ultimately eradicate the problems facing our country.”
“In this, Mamuka Mdinaradze, as State Security Service chief, can make a serious contribution,” he said, reiterating that combating “corruption, organized crime and drug-related crimes” are the government’s “special priorities.”
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