HELSINKI, October 13. /TASS/. Russia considers Norwegian accusations of involvement in a cyberattack a deliberate provocation, Russian Embassy in Oslo wrote in its Facebook account.
"We consider such allegation against our country unacceptable. We view this incident as a serious deliberate provocation, harmful for our bilateral relations," the Embassy said.
"Russian state websites, including Russian extraterritorial structures in Norway, endure millions of cyberattacks every year; for example, the Russian Foreign Ministry website endured 77 million attacks between January and September 2018. Still, does not make it possible to arbitrarily accuse the authorities of the attacks’ countries of origin," the embassy said.
The embassy pointed out that, "in May 2020, a note was sent to the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, explaining the procedure in case of computer incidents - there are official channels for investigation."
"No reaction followed at the time, indication the unwillingness of the Norwegian authorities to conduct a dialogue. It is a question then, why profile response mechanisms have been established in cooperation with the European nations in the first place? We expect explanation from the Norwegian side," the embassy said.
Earlier, Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Marie Eriksen Soreide claimed that Russia was behind the cyberattack on the parliament that took place in August 2020.
On September 1, the Norwegian parliament announced that it was hit by a cyberattack, which leaked emails of lawmakers and parliamentary employees. A "number of immediate measures" were taken in order to thwart a cyberattack, according to Marianne Andreassen, the parliament’s chief administrator. Later, the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) said it will investigate whether "any state" is behind the cyberattack, which took place on August 24.