Russia’s hacking campaign seeks to thwart Georgia’s path westward

Just before Georgia’s parliamentary elections on Saturday, a Bloomberg investigation revealed a years-long Russian hacking campaign that targeted Georgia’s government, major businesses and critical infrastructure.

Analysts see the large-scale cyberattack, which gave Moscow access to sensitive intelligence and the ability to disrupt essential systems, as part of Russia’s efforts to undermine Georgia’s pro-Western aspirations.

“One of the most shocking revelations was that the (Georgian) Foreign Ministry was hacked 114 times, with information collected from embassies and even high-level officials,” Giorgi Iashvili, a Tbilisi-based cybersecurity expert, told Voice of America’s Georgian. service.

“This shows how deeply Russian cyber campaigns have penetrated our systems. Not only public institutions were affected, but also the private sector: telecommunications operators, key energy infrastructure and service providers.”

Between 2017 and 2020, Bloomberg reported, Russian intelligence agencies GRU and FSB successfully infiltrated key Georgian ministries, as well as the country’s energy sector and telecommunications networks. They accessed Georgia’s central bank, electoral commission and oil terminals, exposing the country’s vulnerabilities.

“What the Russians are now trying to do here is identify weaknesses for possible sabotage, identify where and how they can intervene in Georgia’s internal politics, more clearly and aggressively if the need arises, and thirdly, build a network of agents of influence,” said former Georgian Interior Ministry official Shota Utiashvili.

The Georgian government, widely seen as leaning toward Moscow, dismisses those concerns.

In an interview with VOA, Archil Talakvadze, a member of parliament from the ruling Georgian Dream party, said: “In the field of cybersecurity, we now have stronger systems. The State Security Service of the Ministry of Interior is better prepared to confront this threat.”

Others, however, are not convinced.

Giga Bokeria, former secretary of Georgia’s National Security Council and now president of the opposition Federalists party, maintains that Russian actions go beyond hacking and espionage efforts in Georgia.

“We have a government that allows, embraces and even finances Russian infiltration into our political life, economic sphere and security services because they are natural allies. And we have overwhelming evidence of this,” he told VOA.

Last month, U.S. officials told VOA that Washington had prepared sanctions against Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire founder of Georgian Dream and former prime minister, accusing him of acting at Russia’s direction. Ivanishvili is widely seen as the power broker behind Georgia’s government.

Bokeria pointed to the protection of an Ivanishvili associate, Otar Partskhaladze, from US sanctions as evidence of the government’s alignment with Russia. The US Treasury Department sanctioned Partskhaladze, Georgia’s former chief prosecutor, for allegedly promoting Russian interests and assisting Russian intelligence services.

“This is a man who is a very close collaborator of our de facto ruler, the oligarch (Bidzina Ivanishvili),” Bokeria said. “We know this from his own confessions. When he was sanctioned, the entire Georgian government and state apparatus behaved in a shameful manner, to please him, to clean up his bank accounts, to give him time (before) the sanctions could create some discomfort for him.”

Utiashvili noted that over the past 12 years not a single Russian spy has been arrested in Georgia.

“There is no way one can believe that Russian intelligence does not work here. So no, there are (these) multitudes of examples showing that the Russians enjoy complete security,” he said.

However, security is not guaranteed for Georgia’s own security officers. In 2019, Zelimkhan Khangoshvili was murdered in Berlin, in broad daylight.

Khangoshvili, an ethnic Chechen, was a former Georgian security agent who joined Chechen militants fighting Russia in the First Chechen War, making him a target of Russian intelligence. While he later helped Georgian security services identify Islamists in the country, Georgian authorities failed to protect Khangoshvili, forcing him to leave the country.

“The government has not yet answered the question of why it left its own citizens defenseless against the Russians.” Utiashvili said.

The Georgian government remained silent after Khangoshvili’s death and never raised the issue publicly. In a recent prisoner exchange, Russian President Vladimir Putin went to great lengths to secure the release of Khangoshvili’s assassin, Vadim Krasikov.

“We know how important it was for Vladimir Putin to free Khangoshvili’s killer,” Utiashvili said. “He pretty much let most of the high-level political prisoners go in exchange for the killer. That gives you an idea of ​​the level at which this assassination was planned and how important it was to the Russian regime.”

Referring to the Georgian authorities, Utiashvili added: “When you force a citizen like that to leave, it means that you don’t want to intervene. You just don’t want that to happen on your territory. But you are basically signing a death sentence.”

Kakhaber Kemoklidze, a former Georgian security service official during the Georgian Dream government, blames Georgia’s political leaders for failing to counter Russian influence that he said has reached the top ranks of the government.

“They are really implementing the objectives of the Russian intelligence services,” he told VOA.

The influx of Russian émigrés into Georgia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has only increased the risks of espionage.

“There could be large-scale infiltration into different segments of Georgian society or businesses,” Kemoklidze said.

Western countries, including the United States, have spent millions to help Georgia defend itself against Russian hybrid tactics, including espionage and hacking, and to secure its information space. In 2020, NATO, funded by the United Kingdom, launched a project aimed at countering Russian hybrid threats in Georgia.

However, as New lines The magazine reported in May that the Georgian government misused this initiative to spread anti-Western messages and attack critics on social media.

The oversight team at Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said this abuse led to the removal of fake accounts linked to the Georgian government.

“The Western governments, the American, the British and the European, have been helping the Georgian government to become resilient in the fight against enemy propaganda and any disinformation,” Utiashvili said.

“However, the units that were created in the Georgian government with the help of donor money were not used to combat Russian propaganda, but to enhance it, because, again, Georgian Dream and Russia share their propaganda assets in Georgia” .

From protecting Russian allies to failing to protect its own agents and using Western funds to spread Russian narratives, Georgia’s government is helping Moscow meet its strategic goals, analysts say.

“High-level Russian intelligence officers would be very happy to see what the current Georgian government is doing,” said former Georgian security service official Kemoklidze.

According to Bokeria, of the opposition Federalists party, Russia’s goal is to ensure that Georgia and other neighbors remain under the control of the Kremlin.

“For Russia, successful statehood on its borders means it is becoming part of the free world, regardless of NATO or EU enlargement,” he said. “And that is unacceptable to them.”