Soso Gogashvili, the former deputy head of the Security Service, who is in prison currently, publishes another statement on the social network.

In the statement, which Gogashvili titled "Russian Dream VS Georgian Church", among other issues, he talks about the Patriarch and states that the influence agents of FSB have the task of replacing the Patriarch with the desired candidate in Georgia.

In addition, the former high-ranking official of the SSG states in the letter that in 2020 he personally met with the Patriarch and told him in detail about the possible dangers related to him and showed his readiness to stop all this, to which the Patriarch told him: "Ioseb, my son, do not attack them, they are characterized with deep jealousy and I don't want to spare you for this.

In addition, Gogashvili says that Reverend Iakob warned him about the killing that the government was planning. According to him, the killing was assigned to Kist "killer", and then Machalikashvili would be blamed for it.

"I will tell you the following about the case: it is strange to me why the government decided to punish me with this case, which is fabricated, when the alleged victims are Russian citizens connected to the Russian special services, this directly proves the connection between our law enforcement agencies and the Russian special services. I think that this was done deliberately, because yes, - we are together - as we can see from the actions and statements of Georgian Dream recently. Romanovsky and Adamia are agents of influence of Putin's close entourage - Matviyenko, Poltavchenko, as well as FSB, who have the task of replacing the Patriarch in Georgia with the desired candidate. The fact that they are in contact with the Georgian special services is confirmed by the above-mentioned (ongoing) case, I personally have no doubts about it, let the public make conclusions.

Now I will tell you what the Georgian side has been doing and in what form I was involved in all this. Before we get to the specific facts, I want to make a few remarks - during my time in the SSG, and even after that, I always tried to prevent it all. As a precaution, I spread this information several times on television after leaving SSG, but I did not name the likely candidates (for the Patriarchate). Reverend Shio was considered as the first candidate, on whom both sides were working. I didn't share it on TV because I wanted to see Reverend Shio in person. After my interview with Inga Grigolia on September 30th, I contacted Reverend Shio and told him everything that this type of interference was happening, that mentioning his name would harm both him and the church. It became known to me that the Patriarch was going to resign specifically on October 14, Reverend Shio confirmed this to me and said that he himself was worried, and also according to my information (which many people in the Patriarchate know), the resignation was not beneficial for the authorities at that time and they were able to convince the Patriarch. This was happening before the self-government elections of 2021. I promised Reverend Shio to help and share all kinds of information that would evade him this. He thanked me and has not contacted me since. Earlier, in 2020, I personally met with the Patriarch and told him in detail about the possible dangers related to him, and at the same time showed my willingness to stop it all. As usual, he listened to everything and said the following words to me, which I will never forget: "Ioseb, my son, do not attack them, they are characterized with deep jealousy and I don't want to spare you for this." I shook his hand and told him that I would not allow myself and I would not ask for his blessing on what I was going to do. After that I took a break, during this time I received a lot of threats, warnings, "good advice", after a while I started political activity, a whistle-blowing campaign, I received friendly "advice-warning" from Vakho Gomelauri and Prime Minister Gharibashvili before the municipal elections, but I didn't know that they had already launched a case.

I would also like to touch upon Reverend Iakob's warning about which Tea mistakenly specified the time, it was not 5-6 months ago, but a year and a half ago. He warned me that the government was planning to eliminate me. Kist "killer" was instructed to do this, and as a result of judging this information during our discussion, I came to the conclusion that if they did it, then they would blame it on Machalikashvili, because as he told me, this "killer" was in Pankisi. Reverend, you are my grandson's godfather and denying and not telling this fact is regrettable.

I will return to the so-called "carried out" measures. As I said in Inga Grigolia's program, Vano Chkhartishvili asked for a meeting with me to discuss potential candidates for the throne of the Patriarchate. I was tasked with giving him all the information. He expressed his opinion about various bishops, characterizing all of them in different ways as they were his company's candidates. He made the main emphasis on Reverend Shio, that he was the most acceptable candidate, that it was agreed with the boss," Gogashvili wrote.

source: IPN