FILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin gives a speech in front of the monument "Fatherland, Valor, Honor" near the headquarters of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation (SVR), in Moscow, Russia June 30, 2022. Sputnik/Aleksey Nikolskyi/Kremlin via REUTERS/File Photo
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's foreign spy agency accused the United States on Tuesday of plotting "regime change" in Georgia after the South Caucasus country holds a parliamentary election on Oct. 26.
Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) provided no evidence for its assertion, but an SVR statement containing the allegation was a sign of warming relations between Moscow and its traditionally pro-Western neighbour.
"Washington is determined to achieve regime change in Georgia following the results of the upcoming parliamentary elections," the SVR said in the statement.
"The Biden administration has already developed a large-scale information campaign to discredit the ruling Georgian Dream party."
There was no immediate comment from the U.S. State Department. Asked in June about similar accusations by Georgia, a State Department spokesperson denied the United States had any such plans.
Georgia's governing Georgian Dream party did not comment, but officials have repeatedly accused Western countries of backing Georgian opposition groups to try to drag the country into a confrontation with Russia.
After gaining independence from Moscow in 1991, Georgia had been one of the most pro-Western of the Soviet Union's successor states until a sharp downturn in relations with Western countries this year.
Georgia approved a law on "foreign agents" in June despite street protests and Western condemnation, and Tbilisi has drawn closer to Moscow, refusing to impose sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine.
Russian officials have repeatedly praised what they have called Georgia's "moderate" position on the conflict in Ukraine. Public opinion in Georgia remains strongly pro-Kyiv.
(Reporting by Reuters in Moscow and Felix Light in Tbilisi, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
