Kremlin Spokesman Peskov Refutes Hacking Allegations Against Russia

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has refuted allegations that Russian President Vladimir Putin directed cyber attacks against the United States.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russian authorities are in no way involved in the alleged cyber attacks against the United States, particularly the alleged hacking that could have influenced the outcome of US presidential elections, Peskov stressed in an interview with BBC.

"Neither Russian government, nor Kremlin, nor President Putin personally, nor military intelligence, stand behind those attacks, if they really exist," Peskov said.

In December, US President Barack Obama's administration ordered the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats, the closure of two Russian diplomatic compounds and new sanctions against six Russian individuals and five entities over Moscow's alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election, which the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.

"Every day we have hundreds of thousands of cyber attacks against our digital systems in the Russian Federation. Some of them are coming from the territory of the United States. Dozens are coming from the territory of Germany, dozens coming from Great Britain. Do you think that it means, with a high state of certainty that hose attacks against our digital systems are being promoted by the governments in Washington, in London, or in Berlin? No, you would probably say no, it’s out of question," Peskov told BBC.

The Kremlin spokesman specified that Russia does not believe that the territorial links automatically mean that foreign governments are connected to the hacking.

"We think that it has nothing to do with the governments, although we also have some evidence that some foreign special services might stand behind some very, very tense attacks against our banks and, well, our official websites," Peskov said.

Russian officials have called the US hacking allegations against Russia absurd, saying that they are intended to deflect US public opinion from revelations of corruption and other pressing domestic concerns.

The issue of hacking attacks against government networks in different countries has come under the spotlight in recent months after a number of US and German officials claimed that hacking attacking targets in these countries, such as the US Democratic National Committee (DNC) or the infrastructure of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), have been allegedly linked to Russia.

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