Russia’s envoy to London has rejected allegations by Britain and its partners of stealing coronavirus vaccine research with the help of hackers in a UK TV interview.
Andrei Kelin said Thursday’s claims by Britain, the US and Canada that a hacking crew called APT29 was behind the online assaults, and was “almost certainly” connected to Russian knowledge, made “no sense”.
“I don’t believe in this story at all, there is no sense in it” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, including he had found out about the hacking collective’s presence from British media reports.
However, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said it is “very clear Russia did this”, adding that it is essential to call out this “pariah-type behaviour”.
“In this world, to attribute any sort of computer hackers to any nation, it is impossible.”
England, the US and Canada asserted on Thursday that the hackers’ crew, known as the Dukes or Cozy Bear – with connections to Russian intelligence, had focused on research bodies across the globe– including in the UK.
Simultaneously, the British foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said “Russian actors” had attempted to meddle in a year ago’s broad general election by “amplifying” taken government papers online.
The documents – linked with US-UK exchange talks – were gotten by then Labor pioneer Jeremy Corbyn, who said they were proof the Conservatives were getting ready to open up the NHS to US pharmaceutical organizations.
Kelin, who was delegated Moscow’s top agent in Britain last November, also dismissed that claim, saying his nation had no enthusiasm for meddling in British domestic governmental issues.
“I do not see any point in using this subject as a matter of interference,” Kelin said.
“We do not interfere at all. We do not see any point in interference because for us, whether it will be (the) Conservative party or Labour party at the head of this country, we will try to settle relations and to establish better relations than now,” he said.
Meanwhile, Kelin said Russian authorities had found “several cyber attacks” starting from the UK domain during the nation’s ongoing protected submission which paved the way for President Vladimir Putin to stay in power till 2036.
Kelin said Russia was not “blaming the United Kingdom as a state” of being engaged with the assaults, yet didn’t give further subtleties regarding their inclination.
Russia and Britain have been at loggerheads since Moscow was blamed for attempting to murder double specialist Sergei Skripal with a ground-breaking military-grade nerve agent in 2018.
The assault in Salisbury, south-west England, came 12 years after the radiation harming of previous covert operative Alexander Litvinenko in London.
Russia has denied inclusion and Kelin said the nation was prepared to proceed ahead from the controversies.
“We are prepared to turn the page and we are prepared to do business with Britain,” he included.
