LONDON, October 4. /TASS/. The Russian Embassy in London has described remarks by UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who claimed that the Russian General Staff’s Main Directorate (formerly Main Intelligence Directorate or GRU) organized a string of cyberattacks against political institutions, businesses, media outlets and sports organizations across the globe, as crude disinformation.
"Such statements by the Foreign Office amount to crude disinformation in the eyes of British and world public opinion," a spokesman for the Russian Embassy told TASS on Thursday. "As usual, this irresponsible statement fails to be substantiated by any evidence and is another element in the anti-Russian crusade executed by the British government. By the way, this not by chance that it coincides with the meeting of NATO defense chiefs in Brussels and the announcement of the creation of cyber units in the armed forces of some Western countries."
He also recalled that during last December’s visit by then Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told him that, if London had any questions concerning cybersecurity, which it would like to talk over with Russian specialists, Moscow was ready to promptly organize appropriate expert consultations. "Britain refused to carry on such a dialogue, and the only reasonable explanation for this is the assumption that they had essentially nothing to say," he stressed.
The Kremlin has repeatedly rejected Russia’s involvement in various cyber attacks, while Western countries keep blaming Moscow for organizing them.