Diplomat rips into UK’s Apple Watch ban from cabinet meetings over Russian hacker panic

MOSCOW, October 11. /TASS/. Moscow considers the prohibition on UK ministers from wearing Apple Watches to cabinet meetings over fears of a possible Russian hacker attack, as lunacy, the Special Presidential Representative for International Cooperation in the Field of International Security, Foreign Ministry’s Special Envoy Andrey Krutskikh said on Tuesday.

"I am not a technician, so I can only laugh at the news," he said. "We have a saying that goes like this "its lunacy kicking in." Tension can be stirred up by various means: first they ban watches, then shoes, since "we are surrounded by enemies."

"This is utterly illogical," he added. "This international ‘psychology" needs to be broken because it can take us all a long way. The Americans and the British should not mention Russia in this regard but rather remember Edward Snowden, as he has already said everything."

The Russian diplomat noted that "global espionage network was set up not by Moscow and Beijing but by the US." "If the British need somebody to fear, then they should think about their North American brothers," Krutskikh added.

As reported earlier, the UK ministers had been banned from wearing Apple Watches to cabinet meetings for fear that these devices could be hacked and used for eavesdropping.