Raab blames Russian spy service for ‘reprehensible’ cyber attack

THE UK will ensure the world knows the nature of the “reprehensible behaviour” that Russia is engaged in, according to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.

It follows accusations that Russia’s intelligence services tried to steal details of research into coronavirus vaccines.

Russia’s ambassador to the UK Andrei Kelin rejected the claims and said there was “no sense” in the allegations made by Britain, the United States and Canada.

Speaking on Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme yesterday, Mr Raab said it was “outrageous

and reprehensible” that the Russian government is engaged in such activity.

He said: “We’re absolutely confident that the Russian intelligence agencies were engaged in a cyber attack on research and development efforts and organisations in this country and internationally with a view either to sabotage or to profit from the R&D that was taking place.

“And I think the point is, first of all we’ve seen this as part of a wider systematic approach to cyber taken by Russia, and at the time that the world is coming together to try and tackle Covid-19, particularly come up with a global solution for a vaccine, I think it’s outrageous and reprehensible that the Russian government is engaged in this activity.

“So what we’re doing with our allies is making sure people know, making sure the organisations know so that they can better defend against it, but also just calling Russia out, we will do this.

“Now you will see us holding Russia to account and making sure that the world knows the nature of the reprehensible behaviour that they’re engaged in.”