"Protected fuel smuggling into Georgia": Scandal erupts around South Ossetia’s deputy KGB chief
Fuel from South Ossetia goes to Georgia
The first deputy head of South Ossetia’s KGB, Alexander Tuaev, has been suspended from his duties over alleged ties to criminal networks and involvement in corrupt schemes.
According to speculation on social media, this includes fuel and lubricants smuggling into Georgia.
The scandal is particularly sensitive because Tuaev is known to be a close friend and appointee of South Ossetian president Alan Gagloev.
The decision to suspend Tuaev was made by KGB chairman Oleg Shiran himself, and notably, it came while Gagloev was away on a visit to Moscow.
The KGB has made no official statements, but South Ossetian Telegram channels claim that Alexander Tuaev was “protecting organized crime groups and facilitating the shameful smuggling of fuel and lubricants into Georgia on the orders of his friend, President Alan Gagloev.”
In addition, channel authors accuse Tuaev of a long list of other wrongdoings. They allege that he takes a cut from all construction projects and cigarette smuggling operations, owns a private security firm and a gas station – where a fire recently broke out due to safety violations – and more.
“Alan Gagloev is expected to return from Moscow in the coming days and will do everything he can to rescue his buddy from the current situation,” predict social media users.
This forecast isn’t unfounded, as Tuaev previously managed to walk away unscathed from a similar scandal.
Alexander Tuaev was appointed deputy head of the South Ossetian KGB in 2022, when Alan Gagloev came to power.
In November 2023, Tuaev’s name surfaced in a major scandal involving the smuggling of gasoline and fuel and lubricants from South Ossetia into Georgia. At the time, four members of an organized crime group were detained for organizing the illegal transfer of large volumes of POL.
Security forces discovered that a plastic pipeline had been installed inside one of the disused irrigation system conduits in Tskhinval, with an outlet on the territory controlled by Tbilisi.
All of the detained individuals were part of the inner circle of the president’s family and his brother Alik Gagloev, and they gave confessions.
The KGB stated that this activity “posed threats to the national security of the Republic of South Ossetia […] in the context of substantial illegal supplies of POL to a potential adversary, which could be used for military purposes.”
Telegram channels claimed that members of Alan Gagloev’s family were directly involved in the smuggling operation, and that Tuaev had allegedly “covered up the illegal schemes.”
However, in the end, none of the individuals involved in the case were held accountable.
For now, Alexander Tuaev has been suspended from duty for one month. Alan Gagloev has not commented on the situation, and many believe he will once again try to “shield” his protégé. This could lead to an open conflict with KGB Chairman Shiran.
“The suspension of Gagloev’s appointee is a demonstrative and serious blow to his position – and notably, it comes from the security service itself, which appears to have set a course toward cleansing its ranks of infiltrated loyalists,” said one local expert who asked to remain anonymous.
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