MOSCOW, December 6. /TASS/. Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev expects a squabble between Russia’s veterinary and phytosanitary watchdog and PepsiCo to be sorted out in the near future.
"The conflict will be reconciled within days, probably hours," he said in an interview aired by the Rossiya-24 TV news channel on Wednesday, adding that "everyone should obviously learn some lessons."
According to Tkachev, the regulator will conduct an internal investigation about the leak of service documentation. "But PepsiCo has to find out, on its own, which employees took advantage of it," he said.
The minister added that the company is known for its good conduct and quality products on the Russian market.
Earlier reports said that Russia’s agricultural watchdog suspected PepsiCo of a hacking attack to obtain confidential information from Russian state authorities, claiming that the US company had got access to a document that was classified as ‘confidential’. Spokesperson for the regulator Yulia Melano said that an internal inquiry showed that none of the agency’s employees, who have access to such documents, sent it outside the organization. In this regard, the agency concluded that PepsiCo might have pulled off a hacking attack in order to gain access to confidential information from Russian authorities.
PepsiCo has denied the allegations that such a document exists, and denounces the suspicions as absurd and ungrounded.