Accusations against Russia by the Netherlands of preparing a cyber attack are another orchestrated act of propaganda, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
“We arrive at the conclusion about another orchestrated act of propaganda with regard to our country,” the ministry said.
An anti-Russian campaign of spy hysteria launched by the Netherlands mars bilateral relations, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. “We have repeatedly pointed out to the Netherlands, including through diplomatic channels, that the anti-Russian campaign of spy mania unleashed in the country and accompanied by purposeful media leaks about alleged cyberattacks, strongly damages bilateral relations,” the ministry said.
“An OPCW session, during which the issues of financing the attributive mechanism within the organization’s Technical Secretariat will be discussed, is opening on October 9. Some Western countries are persistently seeking the creation of such a mechanism to apportion blame for the use of chemical weapons contrary to international law and in violation of the UN Security Council’s prerogative. It is apparent that the current smear campaign is another stage aimed at creating the ‘necessary’ political background in order to push through this illegitimate initiative,” the ministry stressed.
Earlier, Dutch Defense Minister Ank Bijleveld claimed at a news conference that Dutch military intelligence and security services had allegedly foiled an attack by Russian hackers against the OPCW. She claimed that four Russians – Alexey Morenets, Yevgeny Serebryakov, Oleg Sotnikov and Alexey Minin – were involved in the incident. Bijleveld claimed that all four worked for the Main Directorate (formerly the Main Intelligence Directorate, the GRU) of Russia’s General Staff. If she is to be believed, the equipment confiscated from them was evidence that they had tried to get access to information about the Malaysian MH17 flight disaster in Ukraine.