The Russians are waging cyber war in Europe, says Boris

TWo senior cabinet ministers yesterday accused Russia of orchestrating cyber-war in Europe.

The warnings came amid increasing concern that armies of hackers linked to the Kremlin are seeking to influence elections across the continent.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who is set to visit Moscow in the coming weeks, said: ‘Let’s be very clear, Russia is up to all sorts of no good.’

He stressed that there was no ‘appetite for a new cold War’, but added: ‘They are I’m afraid engaged in cyber-warfare, they’re engaged in undermining countries in the Western Balkans – you saw what happened in Montenegro – to say nothing of Russia’s actions in Ukraine which are as everybody knows completely unacceptable.

‘So point number one is to get that message across to the Russians. They’ve got to change, they’ve got to show that they can be trusted again and that I think is very important.’ Last month Russia denied that it was involved in an attempted coup during Montenegro’s election after a prosecutor there claimed that ‘Russian state bodies’ had played a role in an attempted putsch to stop the country joining nato.

Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said there had been a ‘ step- change’ in Russia’s behaviour and raised concerns that it is trying to influence the upcoming election in Germany. Speaking during a visit to Brussels with Mr Johnson, Sir Michael said he hoped an investigation in Montenegro would establish the facts, adding that the UK’s policy over Russia was to ‘ engage but beware’.

He said: ‘ There is concern about Russian activity in the western Balkans. There is also concern, as you know, in Germany about potential Russian involvement in the German elections just as there has been in other European elections but, yes, the situation in the western Balkans remains extremely fragile.’