Archil Talakvadze, who served as deputy minister of penitentiary system since late 2012, has been appointed as new deputy interior minister, PM Irakli Garibashvili said on Thursday.

In other changes, first deputy interior minister Giorgi Zedelashvili has been replaced; he will become deputy secretary of the State Security and Crisis Management Council. Vakhtang Gomelauri, who was deputy interior minister, will now become the first deputy minister.

Head of the Special State Protection Service (SSPS), Teimuraz Mgebrishvili, was moved to the post of deputy interior minister.

Anzor Chubinidze will replace Mgebrishvili as new head of SSPS – the agency in charge of providing security to high-ranking officials, as well as security of various state facilities and buildings. Chubinidze, who was ex-PM Bidzina Ivanishvili’s chief bodyguard, has once already served on this post when Ivanishvili was the PM.

These changes are the latest in series of recent reshuffles, affecting some of the senior and mid-level officials in executive government, as well as in GDDG, a leading party in the ruling GD coalition.