MOSCOW, February 27. /TASS/.Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Wednesday that Russian structures including the Russian presidential website have regularly experienced cyber attacks from the US and Europe, when commenting on a report by The Washington Post claiming that the US military had carried out a cyber attack against Russia’s Internet Research Agency in the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections.
Peskov stated that he did not know whether the data on this cyber attack was trustworthy. "But in general, a huge number of cyber attacks are constantly carried out from US territory against various Russian organizations, legal entities and individuals. This is the reality with which we live," he noted.
"I wouldn’t say who can be behind these attacks, but we confirm that a huge number of these attacks are organized on a continuous basis," Peskov added. "When they talk about various Russian hackers, we say that we have looked into those who are behind the attack, for example on the president’s website, and they are from Europe, North America and so on. There is a huge number of perpetual attacks," he said.
When asked if the US can actually affect the functions of the Internet in Russia, Peskov said, "Surely, that’s possible." The global Internet network is de facto administered by several companies, he explained. "Judging by this, and given these potential threats legislative procedures are being carried out to pass legislation like the so-called sovereign Internet bill," he noted.
This effort is not aimed at isolating Russia, but is rather aimed at defending it from such illegitimate actions, Peskov stressed.
On February 12, Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, passed a bill in the first reading on the stable operation of the Russian Internet, known as Runet. The authors of this initiative suggested cutting the volume of data, exchanged by Russian users, and which is sent abroad. The operators may be required to install technical tools on communication networks, which would identify the source of this transmitted traffic.