Lavrov: US Gave Russia No Clear Response to Moscow's Initiative to Seriously Deal With Cybercrimes

The Kremlin recently noted the absurd US accusations that have been made against Russia of connivance with cybercrime, while Moscow has repeatedly offered to restore dialogue with Washington on information security issues.

There is still no clear answer from the United States to Moscow's initiative to seriously tackle the issue of cybercrimes, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.

"We are constantly accused of hacking, undermining interests of almost all Western countries, but so far our multiple proposals to seriously start a joint work – in order to substantially ... solve the emerging issues and deal with real difficulties – have been left without a specific response," Lavrov said, addressing to students of the Far Eastern Federal University.

This comes as the National Security Agency (NSA), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) published a report in which they accused the Russian intelligence services of carrying out a series of cyberattacks in 2019-2021. On Tuesday, US media claimed the Russian cybercriminal group Cozy Bear was behind the cyberattack against the Republican National Committee (RNC).

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the administration's coronavirus disease (COVID-19) response and the vaccination program from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building's South Court Auditorium at the White House in Washington U.S., July 6, 2021.

© REUTERS / EVELYN HOCKSTEIN

During the June 16 summit in Switzerland, Putin and Biden agreed to launch bilateral cybersecurity talks in light of several high-profile cyberattacks against US infrastructure, in which US officials suspected Russian involvement despite Moscow's protests to the contrary.