U.S. Ambassador Says Moscow Likely To Meddle In Georgian Elections

TBILISI — U.S. Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan has warned that Russia will likely try to interfere in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

“We’ve seen how active and creative Russian disinformation is in affecting and interfering with many elections and Georgia is an obvious target,” Degnan said during a panel discussion organized by the Georgian Institute of Politics on July 1.

“The United States, the U.K., and other friends of Georgia are helping the public to be able to discern disinformation from accurate information, to hear and read the media and the information they are receiving with greater scrutiny and to be able to evaluate it better,” she added, noting that while she didn’t “have any concrete proof, I think it will be quite likely that Russia will try to interfere with Georgia’s elections.”

Degnan pointed to a massive, allegedly Russian-organized cyberattack on more than 2,000 Georgian websites in October 2019 as “a serious warning” for Georgia and other countries.

Parliamentary elections in Georgian will be held in October.