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Lavrov calls on Germany to abandon groundless claims of ‘Russian cyber attacks’

Russia urges Germany to give up on groundless accusations against Moscow and is ready to discuss any claims if facts are presented

© Sergei Konkov/TASS

MOSCOW, March 9.TASS/. Russia urges Germany to give up its groundless accusations against Moscow and would be ready to discuss any claims if any facts were presented, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after talks with German counterpart, Sigmar Gabriel.

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He said German representatives were accusing Russia on a regular basis of cyber attacks and attempts to influence the German elections. “All these accusations are absolutely groundless,” the top diplomat said. Abandoning attempts to blame Russia for everything “would be good for our relations,” he said.
“We have never dodged any conversations,” he added. “And we have confirmed to our German colleagues today that whoever in Germany has any questions or suspicions as to Russia’s action, or our involvement in any process – you are welcome to put forward to us concrete facts and we will be ready to discuss and consider everything,” he explained.

The Russian diplomat stressed that despite a probe into Russia’s alleged interference in the election race in Germany that has continued for a year, no facts have been presented as proof. "So let us use facts and not rumors," he urged.

Earlier, WikiLeaks claimed citing leaked data of America’s secret services that the US Consulate in Frankfurt was used as a "covert base" for hackers. It maintained that these CIA hackers were using this diplomatic mission as the launching base for numerous hacking attacks targeting some regions of Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

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