“When the BBC releases disinformation at the instruction of foreign intelligence services that aims to tarnish the country’s image, Georgian intelligence services have to conduct an investigation. The result is what was known to our society. The absolute majority of our population still did not believe that the banned since 1930 substance could be used in Georgia,” said Archil Gorduladze, Chair of the parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee.

According to Gorduladze, the investigation confirmed that the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has purchased a substance used in different countries.

“The investigation confirmed that the MIA has purchased a substance, which is used in different countries when the situation necessitates crowd control, violent rallies, and this substance was supplied by Israel. Now it turns out that the BBC accuses Israel of selling a banned substance to Georgia, which is nonsense and a lie.

This reconfirms that foreign intelligence services and forces sought to organize disorder in our country, cause people’s legitimate outrage that would turn into disorder, and the agents would come into power,” he said.

Deputy Head of the State Security Service of Georgia (SSSG), Lasha Maghradze, stated at a briefing: “The investigation has established that the substance “o-Chlorobenzylidene Malononitrile” was used for crowd control on the night of December 4-5, 2024, with “propylene glycol” solution used as a solvent, and neither of these substances falls under the category of banned substances.”

He said that the Ministry of Internal Affairs purchased ‘o-Chlorobenzylidene Malononitrile,” riot control agent from an Israeli company on December 18, 2007, and March 27, 2009, alongside the solvent substance ‘trichloroethylene’.