Russian MP says UK making 'same antiRussian mistake again'
Russia has denied accusations that its hackers sought to meddle in the 2019 UK election and steal data from labs and research centres seeking a coronavirus vaccine, once again blaming anti-Russia sentiment in the west.
“The British administration is making the same anti-Russian mistake again and thus not only further undermining bilateral relations with Moscow but also its own authority,” Leonid Slutsky, the head of the Russian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said on Thursday evening.
Over the past five years the west has accused Russia of hacking into election campaigns, TV stations, military headquarters, anti-doping laboratories and chemical companies, as well as the deadly deployment of a chemical weapon in Salisbury that led to the expulsion of more than 100 Russian diplomats in the US and Europe.
In that context, Thursday’s accusations seem unlikely to shock a Russian public grown used to a simmering conflict with the west that has become far more pronounced since the 2014 annexation of Crimea.
This month the UK sanctioned 25 Russians including the head of the chief investigative agency for alleged complicity in human rights violations. The Russian foreign ministry called the move an “unfriendly” attempt to meddle in Russia’s internal affairs.
If Thursday’s hacking accusations are true, they point to a continued Russian campaign of cyberwarfare against western institutions and democratic processes despite deterrence efforts such as economic sanctions and reported threats by western intelligence agencies to launch crippling cyber-attacks against Russia in retaliation.
The release of information on secret UK-US trade talks would appear to have been designed to sow chaos in the 2019 UK general election. Meanwhile, the reported attacks on researchers would show Russia’s readiness to extend its tactics into the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
“There’s a big temptation to use this as an opportunity to do a lot of things. It’s a political factor now. It’s not about health, it’s not about security any more, this is about politics,” said Andrei Soldatov, a Russian investigative journalist
and co-author of The Red Web, a book on Russian surveillance.
That the race for a coronavirus vaccine has become something of a geopolitical contest is already clear. On Thursday evening the head of a Russian investment fund said the country had no reason to raid the UK for secrets for a vaccine because Russia was going to produce its own vaccine first.
The UK’s accusations focus on APT29, nicknamed Cozy Bear, a hacking group that has been called a front for Russia’s FSB or SVR intelligence agency, and has shown itself to be far stealthier and more proficient than the GRU-backed APT28, aka Fancy Bear. Both were involved in the 2016 hacking of the Democratic national committee, according to the US.
If its response to accusations over meddling in the 2016 US election or the chemical weapon attack in Salisbury are any guide, the Kremlin’s strategy now will be to deny the latest claims and stoke doubts by citing a lack of evidence or questioning the truthfulness of British politicians and intelligence services.
The strategy has proven successful at home. In October 2018 the independent pollsters Levada asked 1,600 Russians about who was to blame for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury. Just 3% of respondents said the Russian intelligence services, 28% said the British intelligence services, and 56% said it could have been anyone.
Even among Russians who distrust Vladimir Putin, there is little indication that they would take information from the UK at face value.
In correspondence with the Guardian, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said: “We have no information about who may have hacked pharmacological companies and research centres in the United Kingdom. We can say only that Russia has nothing to do with these attempts. We do not accept the similar accusations, including the latest unsubstantiated accusations of interference in the 2019 elections.”