Feds charge 6 Russian military officers in international hacking operation with U.S. targets

Six current and former Russian military officers tried to hack computers to disrupt the French election, the Winter Olympics and U.S. hospitals and businesses, according to a Justice Department indictment unsealed Monday. 

The 50-page indictment also implicates the same Kremlin team that interfered with the 2016 U.S. election.

The defendants are connected to the Russian military agency known as the GRU and attempted to disrupt events and operations to further the Kremlin’s geopolitical interests and as retribution against its perceived enemies, according to the Associated Press.

The attacks also include attacks on Ukraine’s power grid; the political party of French President Emmanuel Macron in the days leading up to the 2017 election; efforts to punish Olympics organizers who had banned Russian athletes for doping, and to block a probe into the suspected nerve-agent poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter, the wire service also reported.

One of the six charged in the case announced Monday was among the Russian military intelligence officers charged with hacking in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference.