U.S. Mission to the United Nations
New York, New York
March 5, 2020
AS DELIVERED
BY AMBASSADOR SVEN JÜRGENSON, ESTONIAN REPRESENTATIVE TO THE UNITED NATIONS
In February the Georgian Permanent Representative wrote to the Security Council regarding a large-scale cyberattack launched against the Georgian Government and media websites last October. Estonia, the U.S. and the U.K., today raised this issue in Any Other Business.
We are clear that Russia’s military intelligence service – the GRU – conducted these cyberattacks in attempt to sow discord and disrupt the lives of ordinary Georgian people.
These cyber-attacks are part of Russia’s long-running campaign of hostile and destabilizing activity against Georgia and are part of a wider pattern of malign activity. These actions clearly contradict Russia’s attempts to claim it is a responsible actor in cyberspace and demonstrate a continuing pattern of reckless GRU cyberoperations against a number of countries.
Irresponsibility in cyberspace is detrimental to all of us. We, together with the international community, will continue our efforts to uphold an international framework of responsible state behavior in cyberspace.
Thank you very much.
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