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WASHINGTON – Russian intelligence officials have launched cyberattacks against investigators investigating Russian abuse cases around the world, Western officials said Thursday. a passenger plane in 2014.
The Ministry of Justice has indicted seven Russian intelligence officers for attempting to hack anti-drug agencies in the United States, Canada and elsewhere, ostensibly to undermine their fight against doping in Russia.
A few hours earlier, European officials had accused Russia of cyberattacks against the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The group was investigating the poisoning in Britain of a former Russian intelligence officer, Sergei V. Skripal, and his daughter. British officials have accused Russia of using a nerve agent to try to kill the former spy, which has resulted in the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Western countries this year.
Officials in London also revealed an attempted hacking of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office by Russian intelligence agents in March, following the assassination attempt on Mr Skripal. .
The Dutch authorities have pointed to four Russians who, according to them, were also behind a attempts to hack a Swiss laboratory testing a nerve agent on behalf of the chemical weapons organization as part of its investigation into Skripal poisoning. On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called Mr Skripal "a fool and a traitor to the mother country."
Russian officers have also targeted Malaysian investigators examining the destruction of a passenger aircraft over Ukraine in 2014, officials said. Russia was blamed in this accident.
Although unlikely to result in arrests or convictions, these accusations were the latest in an international scandal of public shaming of the Kremlin by the West.
During a similar coordinated diplomatic offensive conducted against Russia in March, European countries, the United States and Canada expelled many Russian diplomats in pledge of allegiance to Britain for the purpose. poisoning of Mr Skripel and his daughter.
"The defendants thought that they could use their perceived anonymity to act with impunity, in their own country and on the territories of other sovereign nations, to undermine international institutions and divert attention from acts. reprehensible of their government, "said Advocate General John C. Demers. General for National Security, said Thursday. "They were wrong."
Three of the seven agents charged in the US case have also been indicted by the special advocate, Robert S. Mueller III, for his role of interference in the 2016 US presidential election, said Mr. Demers, although he added that this affair did not flow from Mr. Mueller's investigation.
"Nevertheless, these two indictments relate to overlapping groups of conspirators," said Demers. "And they testify to the same methods of computer intrusion and the same overall strategic goal of Russia: to defend its interests through illegal influences and misinformation operations aimed at blurring or altering perceptions of truth. "
On Thursday, unreported Ministry of Justice accusations focused on allegations that Russian agents allegedly hacked several anti-doping agencies and sports federations and stole private medical information from about 250 athletes from 30 countries. They made this information public, "selectively and sometimes deceptively," in retaliation for revelations from a state-sponsored Russian doping program that had led to its banning of the Olympics, prosecutors said. .
The indictment, Ivan Sergeyevich Yermakov, was also allegedly created to create a fake website and send spearfishing emails to employees of Westinghouse Electric Company, based in Pittsburgh, who worked on nuclear reactor technology. Westinghouse supplied Ukraine with nuclear fuel, but Demers declined to say whether the company's servers were penetrated or to specify the broader purpose of the Russian operation.
Eileen Sullivan and Charlie Savage reported from Washington and David D. Kirkpatrick from London. Milan Schreuer contributed to reports from Brussels and Ellen Barry from London.
