Kremlin Spokesman
Dmitry Peskov commented on The Washington Post's report that the US military
carried out a cyber attack against Internet Research Agency in the run-up to
the 2018 midterm elections.
MOSCOW, February 27.
/TASS/. Russian structures, including the president’s website, are regularly
targeted by cyber attacks from the United States and Europe, Kremlin Spokesman
Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, commenting on a report by The Washington Post
that the US military carried out a cyber attack against Russia’s Internet Research
Agency in the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections.
Peskov noted that he
did not know whether the data on this cyber attack was trustworthy. "But
in general, a huge number of cyber attacks are carried out from the US
territory on a permanent basis against various Russian organizations, legal
entities and individuals. This is the reality where we live," he noted.
"I don’t say who
can be behind these attacks, but we confirm that a huge number of these attacks
are organized on a permanent basis," Peskov added. "When they say
about various Russian hackers, we say that we look at those who are behind the
attack, for example on the president’s website, they are from Europe, North
America and so on, there is a huge number of attacks on a permanent basis,"
he said.
When asked if the US
can actually influence the Internet operations in Russia, Peskov said,
"Surely, that’s possible." The global Internet network is de facto
administered by several companies, he explained. "Judging by this, given
these potential threats a law-making activity is carried out to pass such
legislation as the so-called sovereign Internet bill," he noted.
This effort is not
related to Russia’s isolation, but is rather aimed at protecting it from such
illegal steps, Peskov stressed.
On February 12, Russia’s
lower house of parliament, the State Duma, passed in the first reading a bill
on a stable work of the Russian Internet, known as Runet. The authors of this
initiative suggested cutting the volume of data, exchanged by Russian users,
and which is sent abroad. The operators may be required to install technical
tools on communications networks, which would identify the source of this
transmitted traffic.
Source: ITAR-TASS
27-02-2019
