Problems in the field of cybersecurity remain one of the main "irritants" in relations between Russia and the United States.

This opinion was expressed by the Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov, speaking to students of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (California).

“This is a common problem that needs to be addressed.

We have submitted specific proposals on the restoration of interaction mechanisms for effective investigation of incidents in the information space.

We are counting on a positive reaction from the administration (USA -

RT

).

Achieving tangible results in the fight against cyber threats would remove one of the biggest "irritants" in Russian-American relations, "Antonov's words are quoted on the official website of the embassy.

The diplomat recalled that, according to American sources, most cyber attacks in the world originate from email addresses in the United States.

“In 2020, 45 computer attacks were recorded on Russian facilities, this year - 35, which were coordinated from America,” Antonov said.

The Russian ambassador also noted that during the telephone conversation between the leaders of Russia and the United States on July 9, cybersecurity issues were discussed in detail.

According to him, the presidents emphasized "the need for substantive and constructive cooperation in this area, the continuation of relevant contacts."

Some of the details of these negotiations were previously reported by the Kremlin press service.

As noted, Vladimir Putin told his American counterpart that, despite Moscow's readiness to jointly suppress criminal manifestations in the information space, over the past month no requests have been received from the competent US departments on these issues.

“At the same time, taking into account the scale and seriousness of the challenges in this area, the interaction between Russia and the United States should be permanent, professional and non-politicized, be carried out using specialized channels of data exchange between authorized state structures within the framework of bilateral legal mechanisms, as well as in compliance with the provisions of international law. ", - the message says.

Negotiation process

Recently, the topic of negotiations between Russia and the United States in the field of cybersecurity was also touched upon in the American administration.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said during the briefing that meetings between the Russian Federation and the United States at the expert level, as well as "discussions with Russian officials" are continuing.

However, Washington is not going to "read out the agenda of these meetings or provide the lists of participants," she said.

“The most important thing we can do is to maintain the conditions for such conversations and, hopefully, to make progress,” said Psaki.

“I think it's safe to say that high-level cybersecurity experts and members of our national security team represent, along with their Russian counterparts, quite appropriate points of contact.”

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In turn, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in an interview with Mezhdunarodnaya Zhizn magazine that the Biden administration reduces the topic of dialogue in the field of cybersecurity “only to what is of interest to it”.

“And it is interesting for her to discuss with us and, ideally, to come to some of our obligations related to cyber attacks on certain segments of the business, including for the purpose of ransom.

We do not deny the importance of this topic, and we are discussing it with the Americans.

We will also insist on discussing another issue: our organizations and structures are being subjected to harmful influences from outside, often from American jurisdiction.

We want to deal with this, but the street should be a two-way road, ”the diplomat emphasized.

Ryabkov also said that in the course of further work with American colleagues in this area, Moscow expects to receive "some response" to Vladimir Putin's proposal for a dialogue between the United States and the Russian Federation in the field of information security, "which will allow moving forward, expanding the agenda."

Last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that to Moscow's numerous proposals to seriously engage in joint work in the field of cybersecurity in order to "not unfounded, but substantively resolve emerging issues, deal not with fictitious, but real difficulties," a specific response from Washington did not enter.

He announced this during a speech at the Far Eastern Federal University.

It is worth noting that against the backdrop of Russian-American negotiations on cybersecurity, Washington has not stopped accusing Moscow of involvement in hacker attacks. For example, on July 1, Washington and London blamed Moscow for attacks on hundreds of organizations using "brute force to hack networks." A press release from the National Security Agency spoke of "malicious activities of Russian military intelligence in cyberspace" directed against the United States and international organizations. The Russian Embassy in Washington has categorically denied the involvement of Russian government agencies in such attacks, urging the United States to abandon "the practice of unfounded accusations."

A few days later, Joe Biden did not rule out that a new cyber attack on a number of companies could be initiated by Moscow.

According to him, if the US intelligence community proves that the Russian side is involved in this, the White House will respond accordingly.

Earlier, Bloomberg, citing Huntress Labs, reported that "a large-scale attack by a Russian-related hacker group using the ransomware virus has affected about 200 enterprises."

"More points of contact"

As noted by Konstantin Blokhin, a leading researcher at the Center for Security Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, despite the fact that Russia's infrastructure is regularly exposed to cyber attacks coordinated from the United States, Moscow does not blame the American government for this.

“However, Washington has a different approach.

The United States believes that it is necessary to shout loudly about all incidents that can somehow be pulled by the ears to the "Russian trail".

In these conditions, when the White House draws direct parallels between hackers and the Russian government, Moscow has to remind American colleagues of the facts in order to somehow change the perception of the world community of this unfounded information from Washington, "the expert said in an interview with RT.

Blokhin also stressed that in conditions when the Russian Federation and the United States are trying to agree on issues related to cybersecurity, the unfounded accusations of the American side against Moscow "look even more inappropriate."

“Russia is interested in normalizing relations with the United States in terms of cybersecurity.

However, Moscow does not intend to silently watch as it is absolutely groundlessly accused of almost all sins associated with hacking, ”the analyst said.

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In a conversation with RT, a member of the Public Chamber, first deputy director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts of the RUDN University Nikita Danyuk explained that the Russian ambassador to the United States calls the issue of cyberattacks the biggest "irritant" in relations between Moscow and Washington, since the American side completely unreasonably blames many of these incidents to Russia.

“Given how high the degree of anti-Russian rhetoric is in the US political establishment, usually no one understands whether the Kremlin was really behind these network attacks and whether there is at least some evidence of this.

This approach prevents the restoration of normal political communication between the countries, ”the expert noted.

He added that for this reason, it is "extremely urgent" to create transparent mechanisms for investigating such cases, joint Russian-American commissions and working groups that would identify really responsible people.

At the same time, Blokhin drew attention to the fact that the United States first advocated a dialogue in the cybersphere, and then did not actively participate in it, despite the willingness of the Russian side.

“This approach can only be explained by the fact that the American side does not want to understand the deep problems in the cybersphere.

Russia is ready for dialogue, but how effective it can be if accusations from the US continue to pour in without any evidence is a big question, ”the expert said.

According to Blokhin, the success of the negotiations on cybersecurity between the United States and Russia will largely depend on whether the White House can "stop promoting the topic" of the danger of hackers allegedly associated with Moscow.

“If the US softens its rhetoric to a large extent, then there will be a chance that the parties will be able to agree on a number of issues.

It is important that there are more points of contact between Moscow and Washington, ”the analyst concluded.