MOSCOW, April 20. /TASS/. Moscow is demanding that the UK provide evidence for its accusations regarding Russia's alleged cyber attacks, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary on Friday.
The Russian Foreign Ministry is aware of UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd’s accusations made at a cyber security conference in Manchester on April 11 that Russia allegedly carries out cyber attacks "systematically," the diplomat noted. London immediately urged for a harsh response by the United Kingdom and the international community.
"We demand that the British side furnish specific information to back up its accusations," Zakharova said. "By the way, in this regard our embassy in London sent a note with an official request to the Foreign Office. No response has been received so far," she stressed.
According to Zakharova, these sorts of accusations by the UK may be aimed at whipping up public support for a possilble cyber attack by London against Russia.
"One gets the impression that by exploiting the topic of an alleged "Russian cyber attack" the UK government is working up its own citizenry to favorably approve of a massive anti-Russian cyber attack by London. Should that be carried out, this in fact would be an aggressive act unprovoked by anything," she noted.
Moscow views the statement about the alleged Russian cyber threat as just more inflammatory and groundless anti-Russian invective without any attempt to clarify the situation through contacts with the Russian side, Zakharova pointed out.
"This hype going around is nothing more than the British side deliberately dodging any dialogue with us on this issue," she noted.
The diplomat said Russia had repeatedly offered the UK to begin talks on cyber security. A specific proposal was made during the talks of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Boris Johnson in Moscow in December 2017, she emphasized.