TBILISI, Georgia \u2014 Georgian authorities on Feb. 20 accused Russia\u2019s military intelligence of launching a large-scale cyberattack that targeted the government and private organizations with the goal of destabilizing the ex-Soviet nation .<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The United States and Britain also weighed in, strongly condemning the alleged action by Russia in October. A senior Russian diplomat dismissed the accusations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Georgia’s Foreign Ministry said the Oct. 28 cyberattack was \u201ctargeted at Georgia\u2019s national security and intended to harm Georgian citizens and government structures by disrupting and paralyzing the functionality of various organizations, causing anxiety among the general public.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The attack was designed to hinder Georgia’s efforts to join the European Union and NATO, and \u201cgoes against international norms and principles,” the Foreign Ministry alleged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Russia’s GRU military intelligence for the attack. Pompeo said in a statement that the operation \u201cdirectly affected the Georgian population, disrupted operations of several thousand Georgian government and privately run websites, and interrupted the broadcast of at least two major television stations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pompeo described it as part of a \u201ccontinuing pattern of reckless Russian GRU cyber-operations against a number of countries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese operations aim to sow division, create insecurity, and undermine democratic institutions,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Russian Foreign Ministry rejected the accusations as \u201cunfounded and politically driven.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere isn’t and there can’t be any evidence of the involvement of Russian official structures in any malicious cyber-activities in Georgia,\u201d the ministry said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It added that the accusations reflect Georgia’s efforts at \u201cdemonization\u201d of Russia and would further cloud ties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Pentagon spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Carla Gleason, said the cyberattack was \u201cjust one more example of how Russian malign behavior erodes transparency and predictability, undermines the rules-based international order, and violates the sovereignty of its neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said \u201cthe GRU’s reckless and brazen campaign of cyberattacks against Georgia, a sovereign and independent nation, is totally unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also condemned the attack, saying the military alliance \u201ccontinues to provide Georgia with strong political and practical support, including on cyber-defense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2008, Russia fought a brief war with Georgia, which had made a botched attempt to regain control over the breakaway province of South Ossetia. Moscow then recognized the independence of South Ossetia and another breakaway Georgian province, Abkhazia, and set up military bases there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Georgian authorities on Feb. 20 accused Russia’s military intelligence of launching a large-scale cyberattack that targeted the government and private organizations with the goal of destabilizing the ex-Soviet nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":39772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[106,29,32],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1328],"class_list":["post-13443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"6W27GADFWZE6NK5JG2TZHEERKA","arc_canonical_url":"\/international\/2020\/02\/20\/georgia-blames-russia-for-cyberattack-us-uk-agree\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n