MI6 chief outlines steps taken by UK against Russian spies
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Each day, 10,000 of them poured over the border. Some were on bikes, others on foot. Most were sitting in cars, often waiting hours to move even an inch. They were Russians, crossing over from their country into Georgia through the Caucasus mountains. They all had one thing in common: they were mostly young men of fighting age. Hundreds of thousands of them poured into the former Soviet Republic throughout 2022, the number increasing when Vladimir Putin announced a wider conscription service in September — a month which saw Georgia take more than 220,000 Russians alone.
Each day, 10,000 of them poured over the border. Some were on bikes, others on foot. Most were sitting in cars, often waiting hours to move even an inch.
They were Russians, crossing over from their country into Georgia through the Caucasus mountains. They all had one thing in common: they were mostly young men of fighting age.
Hundreds of thousands of them poured into the former Soviet Republic throughout 2022, the number increasing when Vladimir Putin announced a wider conscription service in September — a month which saw Georgia take more than 220,000 Russians alone.
They were at first welcomed. But now, the likes of Natia Seskuria, founder and Director of the Georgia-based Regional Institute for Security Studies (RISS), believe that some of these men could be “agents of influence”, or, more simply, Russian spies.
Regular protests have taken place at the Georgia-Russia border by Georgians, calling on Tbilisi to stop the torrent of Russian nationals heading into the country for this very reason.
Speaking to Express.co.uk, Ms Seskuria said: “It is very hard to differentiate between what kind of intentions these Russian citizens have coming to Georgia. Whether they are really against the regime and under pressure, or whether they are agents of influence.”
Russia is renowned for deploying so-called agents of influence around the world to curry favour in countries.
Under Putin, the country has appointed dozens of honorary consuls. They spread pro-Kremlin messages and sentiment in their designated countries, especially in the former Soviet Republics, many of which have in recent years started to look to the West, like Georgia.
Russia isn’t alone in this. Governments the world over have in the past used similar techniques to influence smaller countries or up-and-coming states.
But in recent years, Russia’s practises have taken on a more sinister tone, and it has been using its people to stir discontent and disinformation, often with the goal of undermining legitimately voted-in governments.
Ever since 2008, when Russia invaded Georgia and occupied 20 percent of its territory, the Kremlin has tried to use politics in Tbilisi to turn Georgians against each other.
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A lack of a visa regime for Russians coming into Georgia means most, if not at all who have tried to come into the country have been successful.
Ms Seskuria said this has posed not only a risk to Georgian democracy but to those Russians who had fled persecution in the years before 2022.
She explained: “Russian journalists and civil society activists who have fled Russia before this inflow of a large number of Russian citizens are now potentially at risk.”
There is also another question that concerns Georgia. Putin has for decades talked about protecting the interests of Russian citizens abroad, especially those in the former Soviet Republics, some of which he sees as belonging to Russia.
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A lack of a visa regime for Russians coming into Georgia means most, if not at all who have tried to come into the country have been successful.
Ms Seskuria said this has posed not only a risk to Georgian democracy but to those Russians who had fled persecution in the years before 2022.
She explained: “Russian journalists and civil society activists who have fled Russia before this inflow of a large number of Russian citizens are now potentially at risk.”
There is also another question that concerns Georgia. Putin has for decades talked about protecting the interests of Russian citizens abroad, especially those in the former Soviet Republics, some of which he sees as belonging to Russia.
He used this reasoning to justify his attacks on Ukraine, saying he was protecting Russians living in the country’s east. This rhetoric was also used in his and Dmitry Medvedev’s 2008 invasion of Georgia.
There are fears that Putin may again use this reasoning to wage war on Georgia in the future.
“But of course,” Ms Seskuria noted, “I don’t think that he needs much pretext to launch military action if he wants to. We see that the war in Ukraine is completely unjustified anyway.”
In the first half of 2022, Georgian politicians, apart from the pro-Russian cohort, condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The country, seeing itself in a similar position, attempted to move closer to the West, and on March 3, 2022, it officially presented its application for EU membership. Yet, as the months went on, things appeared to take an unexpected turn.
In July 2022, the ruling Georgian Dream party chairperson Irakli Kobakhidze launched an otherwise random torrent of criticism at the EU and US.
By the following month, Georgian Dream falsely claimed that the country’s strategic allies, mostly those who are a part of NATO, were attempting to force it into a war with Russia.
Forty-eight members of Georgia’s Parliament issued a statement condemning the accusations, urging the ruling party to stop its “slanderous and disinformation campaign against Georgia’s strategic partners—the US and EU.”
Many blame the party’s billionaire founder, the oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, for the shift in pace.
He is said to exert a disproportionate influence on the party despite having relinquished his role as Chairman in 2021.
While the move hasn’t necessarily been ignited by Russian agents of influence — although some Georgian politicians are openly pro-Russian and are thought to have ties to the Kremlin — it is the sort of thing that the likes of Ms Seskuria fear may distort Georgian society.
She said: “It is pretty much an overarching security problem, especially when it comes to Georgia which is already under Russian occupation.”
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