The Covid criminals

diplomatic, think-tank, healthcare and energy targets to steal valuable intellectual property.”

Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy said: “The reported actions of Russian intelligence services should be condemned. Labour is committed to working with the Government to protect national security and safeguard institutions from foreign interference, none more so than those leading the international effort to develop a Covid-19 vaccine.”

She urged Mr Raab to provide MPS with “concrete steps that will be taken to protect the UK” from cyber attacks. The Government has confirmed that a vaccine created in

Britain would be there to protect people here and across the world.

Former Attorney General Dominic Grieve, who chaired Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee until December, said Russia has been trying to hack systems and “spread disinformation” for a long time. He called the country a “serial offender”.

Russian news agency Tass cited a Kremlin spokesman as saying Russia had nothing to do with the attacks.

Matthew Schmidt, of the University of New Haven, in Connecticut, US, said the cyber attack revelations show Putin has “failed his country”.

The associate professor of national security added: “That Russia hacked vaccine research is a statement of the weakness of Russian science under 20 years of Putin’s rule. Russia was once a world leader in science.”

AFTER the Cold War and the end of Soviet rule, Russia had a chance to stand tall among the world’s democratic nations.

Instead under Vladimir Putin, Russia has become a rogue state, waging a new form of war against the West.

It stands accused of undermining sovereign nations through cyber hacking, espionage and spreading misinformation.

The charge sheet includes the Salisbury poisonings, interfering in the US elections, sabotaging a French TV station and cyber attacks on the German parliament.

We can now add to that shameful list the targeting of UK institutions trying to develop a vaccine for coronavirus.

The security services deserve credit for foiling this latest attack.

Russia could have joined the effort to find a cure for Covid-19. But no.

It has tried to secure possibly groundbreaking research by cheating.

Putin and his corrupt regime have made their country an international outcast.

CONFLICT Spies are in battle over Covid-19 vaccine