MOSCOW, April 28. /TASS/. Attempts by the United States to accuse the Russian side of cyber crimes are absurd and untenable, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Thursday.
"In Washington, apparently, they think that they can make the whole world believe in their made-up story about the Russian cyber threat and Russian hackers. Without trial and investigation, they will not be able to bring the perpetrators, who are appointed by the US administration, to justice, because they see all the groundlessness and absurdity of these steps," she said.
The diplomat also commented on the plot around the Petya encrypting ransomware, which was on the agenda of the planned February 2018 bilateral inter-agency consultations in Geneva. "They were disrupted at the last moment by the American side without any explanation. Both before and after, we have not received specific data on this issue from the US," she added.
Zakharova advised US law enforcement agencies to pay attention to fighting cybercrime in their country. "It would be better [for US] to deal with cyber criminals and their accomplices on their own territory. At least bring Apple and Meta (deemed extremist by Russian authorities) to justice. As we know, they regularly publically transmit personal data of their clients from different continents," she said.
According to Zakharova, the current course of the American administration, which "speaks of an aggressive confrontation with Russia, has already brought Washington to a dangerous line when cyber attacks against the Russian Federation are not only not condemned but actually encouraged."
The Foreign Ministry spokeswoman stressed that the United States needs to justify its own version of Russia's alleged involvement in cyber crimes. "All this is done against the background of the fact that it is from the territory of the United States that we see aggressive cyber activities against our country. Russia has repeatedly confirmed to the United States its readiness to cooperate in strengthening international information security with the participation of competent state bodies," she pointed out.