Russia cyber-plots: US, UK and Netherlands allege hacking

Russian spies have been accused of involvement in a series of cyber-plots across the globe, leading the US to level charges against seven agents.

The US justice department said targets included the global chemical weapons watchdog, anti-doping agencies and a US nuclear company.

The allegations are part of an organised push-back against alleged Russian cyber-attacks around the world.

Russia earlier dismissed the allegations as “Western spy mania”.

BBC diplomatic correspondent James Landale says the aim of this highly unusual openness is to counter Russian behaviour by exposing their operations to the world.

What is Russia accused of?

• The Netherlands has accused four Russians of plotting to hack the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which had been probing the chemical attack on a Russian ex-spy in the UK
• The UK government accused the GRU of being behind four high-profile cyber-attacks, whose targets included firms in Russia and Ukraine; the US Democratic Party; and a small TV network in the UK
• The US said its anti-doping agency and the US nuclear energy company Westinghouse were targeted by Russian intelligence
• Canada said “with high confidence” that breaches at its centre for ethics in sports and at the Montreal-based World Anti-Doping Agency were carried out by Russian intelligence

Added to this, the Dutch authorities have said a laptop seized from the four suspects in April was found to have been used in Brazil, Switzerland and Malaysia.

In Malaysia, the Netherlands said, it was used to target the investigation into the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014 over territory held by Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine. All 298 people on board were killed.

A series of astonishing revelations

by James Landale, BBC diplomatic correspondent

The revelations about how the British and Dutch security agencies disrupted the operations of the GRU are astonishing in their detail and their openness.

This is not what secretive intelligence agencies normally do.

But the willingness of both countries to be so candid illustrates how determined both they and some other Western governments are to try to push back against what they see as a concerted pattern of Russian aggression.

“I imagine Mr Putin is shouting at one or two people right now,” a cheerful British official told me.

What has Russia said?

Its foreign ministry has said a statement would follow shortly after it dismissed the earlier allegations from the UK and the Netherlands as “Western spy mania… picking up pace”.

The Russian embassy in London said the UK’s statement was “reckless” and part of an “anti-Russian campaign by the UK government”.

What have the other countries said?

John Demers, US Assistant Attorney General for National Security, told a press conference in Washington that many of the attacks were aimed at delegitimizing sports bodies and “altering perceptions of the truth”.

He said the attacks were how Russia retaliated for bans on its athletes following evidence it was systematically using drugs to enhance their performance.

As a result of the findings, the US has indicted seven people, four of whom were the men expelled from the Netherlands, while the other three were among those charged in July with hacking Democratic officials during the 2016 US elections.

BBC