Sokhumi Says It Expelled British Citizen on Suspicions of Working for ‘Foreign Intelligence’

2026-01-27 - 08:05

De facto security services of Russia-occupied Abkhazia said they detained and “expelled” a UK citizen, Kuldip Singh, on suspicion of “involvement in the activities of a foreign intelligence service.” According to Sokhumi’s de facto security service, “using his connections and contacts in Abkhazia,” the expelled person “was developing a project that would have allowed him to obtain data on the location of populated areas of Abkhazia, military facilities, and other infrastructure.” The agency also released a video of the interrogation in which the detained man is heard identifying himself in Russian as Kuldip Singh, 42, a UK citizen. In response to questions, the video shows him saying he worked for 13.5 years in the “intelligence unit of the London police” before resigning due to corruption. He then states that he lived in Russia for 10 months before moving to Georgia, and that he later “arrived in Abkhazia” after learning about the territory online. The man is heard in the video as saying that he had been teaching English at an “English school” in Abkhazia and running a billiards business, adding that his British passport had expired and that he had been unable to obtain “documents or a visa” to stay in Abkhazia. According to Sokhumi, the individual was expelled via the Enguri checkpoint, apparently into territory controlled by Tbilisi. Also Read: 05/10/2025 – Sokhumi Detains Georgian National in Gali on ‘Espionage’ Charges 29/07/2025 – Abkhazia Detains Georgian Wanted by Russia 10/06/2025 – TASS: Russian Detained in Sokhumi Over ‘Espionage’ for Ukraine, Possible Terrorist Plot