MOSCOW, January 13. /TASS/. Moscow expects that the cyber security mechanisms established by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will be working effectively in 2017 during Austria’s chairmanship, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the organization, Alexander Lukashevich, said at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna. 

"We regret to note that the cyber security issue was extremely politicized in some countries in 2016, with ungrounded accusations against other countries regarding their involvement in some cyberattacks," the diplomat noted. "That’s despite the fact that the OSCE drafted the list of confidence-building measures on the use of information and communications technologies designed to prevent such things and resolve incidents without confrontation."

"We hope that the mechanisms created by the OSCE will be working effectively in 2017," the diplomat stressed.

Austria's presidency in OSCE 

Russia expects Austria, presiding over the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe this year, to build an open, meaningful, honest and substantive dialogue on key issues, Lukashevich noted.

"We expect that this year the trend towards confrontation, supported by some countries, to be reversed so that these countries abandon the language of the Cold War era as well as their attempts to create images of external enemies in order to solve their domestic problems," the diplomat said. "We hope that Austria will succeed in building an open, meaningful and, which is most important, an honest and substantive dialogue on key issues. This concerns the dialogue on the current and future security challenges which was decided to be launched at the recent OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in Hamburg."

Lukashevish pointed out that in 2017 Russia would be one of the three member states to preside over the OSCE Forum for Security Cooperation while in late April till early August Russia would head this body. "We expect a close cooperation between Russia and Austria as presiding countries," the diplomat stressed.