MOSCOW, October 20. /TASS/. Russia strongly dismisses groundless US charges some Russian government agencies were behind alleged malicious activity in the Internet, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary on Tuesday.
"The US administration has once again … accused our government structures of malicious activity in the field of information and communication technologies. We strongly dismiss such speculations. Russia’s government agencies have nothing to do with any malicious activity in the Internet, contrary to what Washington tries to assert. Apparently, behind this there are time-serving political considerations and intentions of Russophobic forces in the United States to keep afloat the agenda of a Russian threat at a time when the presidential election campaign has reached its peak," the commentary runs.
Zakharova stressed that as usual the American side did not bother to present any proof.
"There has been another portion of hackneyed cliches about our country’s ‘complicity’ in a wide range of destructive actions in the cyberspace," she said in the wake of statements by the US deputy attorney-general and secretary of state.
Also, Zakharova pointed to the US reaction to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal for cooperation in the sphere of cybersecurity.
"Statements by a US Department of Justice official, who described Putin’s proposal as ‘cynical propaganda’ were in fact Washington’s first public reaction to our call for cooperation. It is noteworthy that the Americans preferred to react to the Russian leader’s proposal at a level of a deputy chief of a federal agency, moreover, by no means involved with the issue," the commentary runs.
"It is regretful that judging by the rhetoric of senior US administration officials our approaches are not shared and there is no readiness for cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual respect," Zakharova said.
Earlier, the US Department of Justice accused six Russians of complicity in major cyberattacks around the world. Washington argues that all of them are career Russian military intelligence officers. The investigators argue that the accused and their accomplices harmed computer networks around the world, including those in France, Georgia, the Netherlands, South Korea, Ukraine, Britain and the United States. US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo on Monday called upon all countries to pool efforts in bringing to justice the six Russians it suspects of complicity in cyberattacks. Moscow has repeatedly dismissed the Western countries" charges of organizing cyberattacks and invited Washington to establish a dialogue over cybersecurity.