Russia firmly denies involvement in hacker attacks on government networks in the United States.

This was stated by the press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov.

“Russia is not involved in such attacks, and in particular in this one.

We declare this officially and decisively, ”said Dmitry Peskov.

He also noted that "any accusations of Russia's involvement are absolutely unfounded."

According to him, this is a continuation of "blind Russophobia, which is resorted to in any incident."

Earlier, Dmitry Peskov recalled that Russian President Vladimir Putin offered Washington to conclude an agreement on cooperation in the field of information security.

“This would allow our two countries to cooperate and counter any cybercrimes, cyber espionage attempts and so on.

This initiative of Putin did not receive a response from the United States, ”Peskov said.

Representatives of the new presidential administration of Democrat Joe Biden have already said that cyberattacks on American systems will entail consequences.

In particular, this was stated by Ron Klein, whom Biden had appointed chief of staff of the White House.

“Those responsible for this will be held accountable for what they did,” said Ron Klein.

- It's not just about sanctions.

They are also measures and actions that we can take to reduce the ability of foreign actors to repeat such attacks or, worse, to carry out even more dangerous encroachments. "

On December 20, Reuters, citing sources, reported that Joe Biden's team is discussing the possibility of imposing new sanctions against Russia due to the hacker attack attributed to it.

In addition, the possibility of retaliatory damage to Russian computer systems was discussed.

At the same time, Reuters notes that these proposals are theoretical, and the action plan will not be formed before Biden's inauguration on January 20, 2021.

Hacker attack on the USA

On December 13, the American media spread reports that some hackers associated with foreign governments had broken into systems belonging to the US Treasury Department and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

Despite the fact that no official statements about Russia's involvement were made, various publications and TV channels promoted this version of events.

Then, on December 16, the Office of the US Director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the Cyber ​​and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a joint statement that it identified a "significant cyber incident" that affected the computer networks of the US federal government.

  • Joe Biden

  • Reuters

  • © Kevin Lamarque

Hackers managed to break into American government systems thanks to a vulnerability in SolarWinds software.

It is noted that this happened back in March.

After being hacked with malware, the hackers gained access to the computers of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce, the State Department, the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Homeland Security.

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) was also hacked.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Russia for the incident on December 18 during an interview on a radio broadcast by journalist Mark Levin.

“Suffice it to say that significant efforts have been made to use some third-party software to actually inject the code into US government systems, as well as - from what is known so far - into the systems of private companies and other companies and governments. all over the world.

Serious efforts have been made, and I think that now we can quite unequivocally say that it was the Russians who were doing this, ”Pompeo commented on the situation.

However, the very next day, Donald Trump said that the media exaggerated the scale of the incident.

“In the media that publish fake news, the cyberattack was inflated to a much larger scale than it really is.

I was fully informed, everything is under control.

Russia, Russia, Russia - this is the first chant as soon as something happens, because the mainstream media, mainly for financial reasons, are afraid to discuss the possibility that it could be China (and he could!) ", - Trump wrote on Twitter ...

The same position was voiced by the adviser to the American president on economic issues Larry Kudlow, who suggested that some other country could be involved in the cyber attack.

Search for the culprit

Shortly after Trump's announcement, the Associated Press reported that the White House was preparing to release an official statement on behalf of the country's leadership, in which Russia was held accountable.

However, then, according to anonymous sources, an order was received to cancel the publication.

Trump's political opponents viewed his position as pandering to Russia.

In particular, Republican Senator Mitt Romney said this.

  • Donald Trump

  • Reuters

  • © Carlos Barria

“Russia acted with impunity,” he said.

“They were not afraid of what we could do with our cyber potential.

They didn’t find our defense systems reliable enough.

And they apparently did not think that we would answer this extremely harshly. " 

Romney also noted that Trump does not have "a proper understanding of what concerns Russia."

He called for an immediate response and called cyberspace "the area of ​​war of the future."

Now the United States, with the help of Russian "interference" in their internal affairs, is trying to substantiate its intended response - it can be either the imposition of sanctions or a cyber attack, for example, on the main state institutions, says Konstantin Blokhin, a researcher at the Center for Security Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

At the same time, the fact that Trump did not blame Russia does not mean a change in US foreign policy.

“Trump will soon leave the White House, he will not be able to radically change something in the United States until Biden's inauguration.

If Trump put pressure on Iran, NATO allies, China, then Biden will shift the emphasis from these actors to Russia, "the political scientist explained.

It should be expected that Joe Biden and his team will introduce new restrictive measures against Russia, believes Konstantin Blokhin.

“Most likely, the new US administration will try to expand sanctions, include more names of officials or hit their foreign real estate.

I do not exclude the possibility that economic pressure will be exerted on Russia, its demonization will intensify.

Biden will also try to act in sync with the allies against the Russian Federation in order to create an unfavorable situation along its borders, ”the expert said.

A similar point of view was expressed in the RT commentary by political scientist-Americanist Mikhail Sinelnikov-Orishak.

“This is a great reason to accuse Moscow of interfering in internal affairs, to justify any measures, since it is impossible to determine exactly who is behind these attacks.

In addition, this is a good justification for allocating additional funds from the budget for the cyber sphere, ”the expert concluded.