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Dutch Foreign Ministry summons Russian ambassador over OPCW 'hacker attack'

An attempt to carry out the "hacker attack" was made on April 13
The Russian Foreign Ministry's building in Moscow Valery Sharifulin/TASS
The Russian Foreign Ministry's building in Moscow
© Valery Sharifulin/TASS

THE HAGUE, October 4. /TASS/. Russian Ambassador to the Netherlands and envoy to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Alexander Shulgin has been summoned by the Dutch Foreign Ministry over the alleged hacker attack against the organization, which the Dutch authorities blame on Moscow, the Netherlands’ Defense Minister Ank Bijleveld told a news conference on Thursday.

"The ambassador has been summoned by the Foreign Ministry to give explanations," Bijleveld said.

Earlier on Thursday, Bijleveld claimed that the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service had thwarted an alleged hacker attack by Russia against the United Nations chemical weapons watchdog OPCW. According to the minister, four Russians - Alexei Morenets, Yevgeny Serebryakov, Oleg Sotnikov and Alexei Minin, who allegedly worked for the Main Directorate of the Russian General Staff, known as GRU, were involved in the attack.

Their equipment, which was seized, also confirms that they tried to get access to the data on the MH17 flight crash in Ukraine in 2014.

The minister claimed that the attempt to carry out the attack was made on April 13. The four Russians suspected of their role in the attack were expelled from the country on the same day.