MOSCOW, March 16. /TASS/. Washington’s charges against Russian citizens over the hacking attack on Yahoo are used for defaming Moscow’s image in the United States, Russian MP Leonid Slutsky said on Thursday.

"We are aware of this and as we know, over the past weeks and months this is not the only accusation of this character and in our view it has nothing to do with reality," said Slutsky, who chairs the State Duma’s international affairs committee.

The Russian side has repeatedly called on "the respective US agencies to cooperate to establish the truth and to prevent such situations in principle in the near future," Slutsky said.

"But apparently, our US colleagues are interested in fabricated and virtual hacks rather than the fight against real hacks… Such situations are used for marginalizing Russia’s image in the US and the world," the MP said.

The US Justice Department announced on Wednesday that two FSB officers and two hackers who assisted them have been charged as suspects in a 2014 hacking attack on some 500 million Yahoo accounts.

The department said one of the men indicted in the case is Karim Baratov who was arrested in Canada on Tuesday.

The indictments also target Dmitry Dokuchaev, Igor Sushchin and Alexey Belan who has been charged twice before in connection with cyber intrusions.

The charges include hacking, wire fraud, trade secret theft and economic espionage, according to US justice officials.