The Russian intelligence service GRU is suspected of being behind a series of high-profile attacks on foreign targets, including the assassination attempt on the Russian ex-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julia Skripal in the British Salisbury in 2018.

According to the indictment, the six suspected Russians "intended to support the Russian government's efforts to undermine, retaliate against or otherwise destabilize" Ukraine, Georgia, the elections in France and the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang in South Korea, writes ABC News .

Russia was not allowed to join Pyeongchang due to a widespread doping scandal.

Leaked email

The attacks on France concern hacked computers during the 2017 presidential election, when emails from people who worked for Emmanuel Macron's presidential election campaign were leaked.

The data breach has taken place with the help of malicious software, so-called malware, and extortion software, so-called ransomware.

One of the cyber attacks, "Notpetya", targeted, among others, the energy and financial sector in Ukraine.

But the virus spread around the world and in 2017 paralyzed parts of Europe, Asia and the United States.

The attack caused damage corresponding to close to SEK 9 billion.

"No country other than Russia has armed itself with a cyber capability that is so harmful and irresponsible, and which, in order to achieve small tactical advantages, arbitrarily causes unprecedented consequential damage," Demers said on Monday, when the indictment was published.

The Kremlin has previously denied that Russia is behind cyber attacks on foreign targets, such as "Notpetya".

Previously charged

One of the accused, a 29-year-old man, has previously been charged by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller in the high-profile so-called Russia Inquiry, which investigated suspected involvement in the US presidential election campaign in 2016, writes The Washington Post.

The indictment also applies to suspected IT attacks aimed at international and British investigations into the novitiate attack in the UK in 2018.