LONDON: The UK government and the United States on Thursday accused Russian security services of engaging in a sustained cyber-espionage campaign against key politicians, journalists and NGOs.
Moscow has been suspected of meddling in British politics before, including the divisive 2016 Brexit referendum, but the Conservative government has been criticised for failing to probe.
In the latest claims, the foreign ministry said Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) was behind failed attempts to interfere in UK political processes and said it had summoned Russia’s ambassador to London about the issue, AFP reported on Friday.
US prosecutors meanwhile unsealed allegations against two Russian citizens over the hacking of computer networks in Britain, US and other NATO nations. Those two nationals now face sanctions in both countries.
UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said in a statement that Russia’s attempts to interfere in British politics are completely unacceptable and try to threaten our democratic processes.
Russian envoy summoned
He said that in sanctioning those responsible and summoning the Russian envoy today, we are exposing their malign attempts at influence and shining a light on yet another example of how Moscow chooses to operate on the international stage.
Cameron’s office said Centre Eighteen, a unit within the FSB, was accountable for a range of cyber espionage operations targeting the Britain.
One of the two men charged in the US was an officer in that unit.
The British government claimed the FSB targeted parliamentarians from different political parties, with some attacks resulting in documents being leaked in an operation from at least 2015 to 2023.
The organisation had also hacked US-UK trade documents that were leaked ahead of the British general election in December 2019, it added.
The two men indicted in the US, Ruslan Aleksandrovich Peretyatko and Andrei Stanislavovich Korinets, are not in US custody.
