Russian spies collected information on Georgia's government and state institutions for years - Bloomberg

Russian spies have been monitoring the Georgian government and large companies for years, organising a large-scale espionage and hacking campaign.

Here's What We Know

The publication, citing sources, notes that the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and Russian hackers were active during 2017-2020. The targets were government agencies, the central bank, energy and telecommunications companies.

In particular, the hackers conducted a several-month covert operation against the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during which they obtained data from Georgian embassies around the world. The article also notes that the Russians were monitoring the Georgian state-owned energy company. As a result, the Russian Federation could cut off electricity in some regions of Georgia if necessary.

Georgia is soon to hold crucial parliamentary elections that could decide whether it will continue its efforts to integrate with the West or turn back to Moscow. The election will pit the ruling Georgian Dream party of pro-Russian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili against various opposition candidates.

"Russia has been purposefully infiltrating Georgia for many years. Its main interest is to weaken Georgia's pro-Western foreign policy," said Natia Seskuria, director of the Regional Institute for Security Studies in Tbilisi.

Source: Bloomberg