Russia's reaction to news seven Russian military intelligence (GRU) hackers have been exposed and indicted for launching cyberattacks on the World Anti-Doping Agency, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), and a US-based nuclear energy company is one of denial and counter-accusation, as is to be expected.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov:
"We are watching with regret how the US authorities continue to poison the atmosphere of Russian-American relations by bringing ever new groundless accusations against Russia, which certain other NATO countries would hurry to repeat at the command from Washington. Again, the Western public is being scared with “Russian hackers,” ascribing to them the “hacking” of computer networks all over the world.
Washington is doing its best to prevent the old invention about “Russian meddling in the US presidential election in 2016” from finally falling into pieces. So they are trying to bolster it up with new fakes and continue to deceive their own and the world public so as to create an additional pretext for sanctions and other measures to pressurise Russia."
Head of Russia’s Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Foreign Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev via TASS:
"A synchronized and unanimous reaction by the West - where in addition to the British Foreign Office, Dutch Defense Minister Ank Bijleveld and NATO Secretary General Jons Stoltenberg ‘showed up’ at the same time - confirms that what we are seeing is not a mere accident, but an episode in a massive campaign," Kosachev wrote on his Facebook page.
He believes that these accusations are aimed at justifying any hostile action against Russia. "Given the context, the fact that the name of the professional supplier of these ‘required’ fakes is the British ‘independent’ company Bellingcat, confirms the attempt to tie together anything possible into a single dossier of Russia’s fake ‘crimes’ that would justify any, even the most absurd accusations against it, and accordingly, any hostile action against it," the senator said.
He said accusations would keep mounting against Russia, which, for its part, should not "swallow these provocations".
“We conclude that this is yet another orchestrated propaganda campaign against our country.”
“In light of the West’s heavily hyped-up paranoia around ‘omnipotent Russian cyber spies’ in recent years, who Western politicians say live in ‘backward Russia’ – any citizen of our country with a mobile device is perceived as a spy.”
– State Duma Information Policy Committee Chairman Leonid Levin:
“The Dutch defense minister’s statement looks like a populist attempt to butt into a hot news agenda against the backdrop of a series of wanton accusations about Russian hacking attacks and chemical weapons use.”
“The reasons for why this development was held without public disclosure for nearly half a year are not clear.”
– [More from] Federation Council Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Konstantin Kosachev:
“The contours of further information and propaganda attacks against Russia have been outlined; they will continue to revolve around a certain set of promoted ‘tags,’ among them: ‘chemical weapons, cyber attacks and the GRU.”
“This is intended to create a strong association between Russia and inhumane weapons, and with its incessantly secret (but for some reason always revealed) interference in the affairs of Western democracies.”
“[The association will] ultimately delegitimize Russia itself [and open the use of] equally permissible and good illegitimate means against it.”
Comment by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov on new anti-Russia accusations in the US (Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Accusations of Russian cyber-attacks timed to NATO, OPCW sessions, says Russian EU envoy
'Orchestrated Propaganda:' Russia Reacts to Dutch Hacking Accusations (Moscow Times)