The UK and US authorities have come to the conclusion that the Russian foreign intelligence service was behind the SolarWinds cyberattacks, the UK Foreign Office said in a statement.
“The UK claims that the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) was behind the compromise of SolarWinds”, – the statement said.
“Russia’s malicious behavior around the world – be it in cyberspace, interference in elections or aggressive operations of their special services – demonstrates that Russia remains the most serious threat to the national and collective security of Great Britain”, – the department stressed.
“We see what Russia is doing to undermine our democracies. The UK and the US are calling for Russia’s malign behavior so that our international partners and local businesses can better defend themselves and prepare for such actions”, – said British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab.
The US authorities on Thursday imposed sanctions on six Russian technology companies, saying they will continue to “hold the Russian Federation accountable for malicious cyberspace activities such as the SolarWinds incident, using all available measures.”
Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov previously emphasized Moscow’s innocence in cyberattacks. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted that the US accusations of Russia’s involvement in a massive hacker attack on American federal agencies are unsubstantiated. Russia has also repeatedly denied accusations of attempts to influence democratic processes in different countries, and Peskov called them “absolutely unfounded”. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking about the alleged Russian interference in elections in different countries, said that there were no facts confirming this.