MOSCOW, June 7. /TAAS/. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has called the information of the alleged involvement of Russian hackers in the Qatari scandal published by mass media a 'fake.’ "This is a new fake, a new lie that was published. Our CNN counterparts each time publish references to unnamed sources who serve in unnamed units of a such-and-such intelligence service. All this flow of information is out of touch with reality. A fake is a fake, after all," Peskov said.
"At another point, our work is becoming easier and easier each day, so we don’t have to explain it, but just say instead ‘It’s a fake’ or ‘It’s not a fake,’" the Kremlin spokesman joked.
Answering the question about whether the Kremlin plans to take action to remove the Russian hacker theme from the international information agenda, Peskov noted that the Kremlin "cannot interfere with the editing policy," adding that it was necessary to "fight for the high culture and quality of news coverage."
Earlier CNN reported that American intelligence services believed that Russian hackers had acquired access to the Qatari state information agency’s systems and published made-up news there that had caused a scandal between Qatar and the other states. A group of FBI officials came to Doha to provide help to Qatar’s authorities in the investigation, sources said. According to the TV channel, the specified cyber attack occurred two weeks ago. The investigation into the scandal continues.
However, CNN’s report says that the American intelligence services do not specify which kind of relation they found between Russia and hackers who allegedly got access to the Qatari agency’s systems. They were said to have published a made-up material in which the Qatari leader allegedly spoke in favor of Iran and Israel and admitted that Donald Trump might leave office early.
Cutting ties with Qatar
Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya’s interim government, the Republic of Maldives and the Republic of Mauritius cut ties with Qatar on June 5 for supporting terrorism and extremist ideology. Mauritania joined them the next day. A number of countries said they would take measures, such as cut air and sea traffic, suspend banking transactions, eject Qatari diplomats and order Qatari citizens to leave. Qatar’s authorities called these actions unjustified and accusations against the country groundless.
Information about Russia’s alleged attempts to influence other countries’ policy has been regularly appearing in US and European mass media since an electronic correspondence stolen by unknown hackers from the systems of the US Democratic Party’s National Committee was published on WikiLeaks’ web site. US intelligence services said that Moscow had organized cyber attacks to meddle in the country’s election. Russia denied the allegations many times.