Russia categorically denies criminal charges of cyber attacks against Russian government structures filed by the US authorities. said in a commentary circulated on Tuesday by Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova.
She noted that the US administration again made an anti-Russian attack and brought criminal charges against six Russian citizens who are allegedly employees of the Russian special services.
“As usual, no evidence has been presented. The hackneyed theses about the “involvement” of our country in a wide range of destructive actions in the information space have been circulated, “the document says.
Zakharova stressed that Russian state structures have nothing to do with cyber attacks. The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman explained that the reason for the accusations was the desire of the Russophobic forces in the United States to “keep afloat” the topic of the “Russian threat” in the midst of the presidential election campaign.
“We can only regret that, judging by the rhetoric of high-ranking officials [американской] administrations, our approaches are not shared there and are not ready for cooperation on an equal and mutually respectful basis, ”Zakharova noted.
The position of Russia on building interaction in the cyber sphere has been repeatedly voiced, including at the highest level. It is formulated in a statement by the President of the Russian Federation dated September 25, 2020. The statements of the representative of the US Department of Justice, who characterized the aforementioned statement of Russian President Vladimir Putin as “cynical propaganda”, became Washington’s first public response to Russia’s call for cooperation.
On October 19, the US Department of Justice accused six Russians of hacking involved in the spread of the NotPetya virus in 2017. They were accused of attacks on American companies, Ukrainian energy systems and attempts to disrupt the presidential elections in France. The accused were dubbed “employees of the GRU”, they allegedly organized, among other things, cyberattacks at the Olympics in South Korea.