MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th July, 2020) UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told Sky news that he is "absolutely confident" that Russian intelligence services had tried to steal Western countries' coronavirus vaccine research.
On Thursday, the UK�s National Cyber Security Centre announced that a joint operation with the US and Canada had uncovered that Russian cyberactors, who operate "almost certainly" as part of Russian intelligence services, are trying to steal valuable information from the three countries' vaccine researchers. On the same day, Raab blamed Russian intelligence services for the attack, something vehemently denied by the Kremlin.
"We are absolutely confident that the Russian intelligence agencies were engaged in a cyberattack on research and development efforts and organizations in this country and internationally with a view either to sabotage or to profit from the R&D that was taking place," Raab said in Sunday's interview.
The foreign secretary went on to claim that it is a "part of a wider systematic approach to cyber taken by Russia"
"And at the time that the world is coming together to try and tackle COVID-19, particularly come up with a global solution for a vaccine, I think it's outrageous and reprehensible that the Russian government is engaged in this activity," he stated.
According to the official, the UK, the US and Canada are "not just calling Russia out," but "holding Russia to account" and "making sure that the world knows of the nature of the reprehensible behavior they're engaged in."
In an interview with the BBC, Russian Ambassador in London Andrei Kelin said that "there is no sense" in this story. The diplomat denied that it would be an "advantage" for Russia to get hold the West's vaccine development secrets. He recalled that Russian pharmaceutical company R-Pharm had already agreed with AstraZeneca to produce Oxford vaccine against COVID-19 in Russia, should it prove effective.
Commenting on the allegations earlier in the week, Russian Direct Investment Fund CEO Kirill Dmitriev called them an attempt to tarnish the reputation of a Russian coronavirus vaccine under development, which may become the world's first.
