There are no friendly spies and hostile spies – everyone should stop spying and espionage! – This was stated by the Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia, Shalva Papuashvili, responding to the information in the French media that “France has recalled two intelligence agents from Georgia”.

According to him, the Georgian government and security services today have every opportunity to expose intelligence activities in Georgia and therefore everyone should be careful.

Papuashvili says that “no one’s spying has any business in Georgia”.

“There is only an article [from the French media]. I don’t know how much we can trust the content, but as the article says, it turns out that there were two intelligence agents who were recalled by themselves. If this is true, do you think that having foreign intelligence agents in the country warms up relations between countries, and when agents leave the country, it cools them down? I don’t know. I don’t know exactly what is meant, but it should be emphasized that the Georgian government and security services today have every opportunity to expose intelligence activities in Georgia. Therefore, everyone should be careful, there is no West, no East, no North, no South here. No one’s intelligence has anything to do with Georgia. There are no friendly spies or hostile spies. Everyone should stop spying and espionage,” Papuashvili said.

For information, Radio Liberty, citing Intelligence Online, a French publication that works on intelligence and diplomatic relations, reports that “France has recalled two intelligence agents from Georgia.”

According to them, the agents were recalled in May and the background to their recall is the arrest of a “former associate” of Georgian Dream leader Bidzina Ivanishvili. As Radio Liberty writes, the publication refers to Giorgi Udzilauri, the former press secretary of Cartu Bank and a former high-ranking official of the financial police, who was arrested on May 5 on charges of espionage.

According to the French publication, the operation conducted by the Georgian security service has strained relations between the two countries.

“The French Foreign Intelligence Service was forced to recall two intelligence agents from Tbilisi to Paris,” the publication writes.

In addition, as Radio Liberty writes, citing a French publication, the Georgian government, in order to avoid aggravating diplomatic relations, refused to declare the French intelligence agents "persona non grata" and only demanded their removal from the country, threatening to make their identities public if this demand was not met.