🇪🇪Last week in Tallinn, I was one of the speakers of the International Conference on Cyber Conflict, organized by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE).
I presented my research on governmental responses to cyber-enabled electoral interference in the parliamentary elections of Republic of Moldova (2025) and Georgia (2024), during a panel alongside Liisa Past, former National Cyber Director of Estonia, Nikita Shah, senior fellow at CSIS, and Dr. Itamara Lochard from George Mason University. The discussion was moderated by Martha Turnbull, Director for Hybrid Influence at the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats.
The article I published in the conference proceedings of CyCon 2026 (https://lnkd.in/dAzM6xm8) argues that the key factor explaining the lack of resilience to FIMI in the case of Tbilisi, compared to Chișinău, is neither institutional capacity nor the state’s level of cyber development, but rather the foreign policy orientation of the governing elite.
Paradoxically, Georgia possessed more mature cyber institutions and a more developed security infrastructure than the Republic of Moldova. Nevertheless, the government in Tbilisi not only failed to counter Russian interference but also facilitated its amplification.
The main implication for the Euro-Atlantic community is that democratic resilience cannot be built solely through investments in technical capabilities. The cases of Moldova and Georgia demonstrate that the same institutional infrastructure can be used either to counter Russian interference or to amplify it. The EU and NATO must devote as much attention to the strategic orientation and political will of governing elites as they do to the development of cybersecurity capabilities.
In addition to representatives from academia, military institutions, and industry, Estonia’s flagship NATO conference dedicated to the fifth domain of warfare opened with remarks from two presidents: Petr Pavel, President of the Czech Republic, and Alar Karis, President of Estonia and our host.
The presence of these political leaders at such a specialized event confirms that any effort to strengthen resilience against cyber threats would be ineffective without a clear signal of commitment from the highest levels of state leadership.
Congratulations to Jack Shis and his wonderful team for this great event! #CyCon2026#NATOCCDCOE
