The Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the use of the "imaginary threat of Russian hackers" political

Countries that claim attacks by "Russian hackers" but do not want to work with Moscow through official channels are acting "for political purposes," Vladimir Shin, deputy DIRECTOR of the Foreign Ministry's Department of International Information Security, said, TASS reports.

“We conclude that those countries that accuse RUSSIA of all mortal sins, but at the same time do not want to work through official channels, are not really interested in real interaction, but only use the imaginary threat of “Russian hackers” for political purposes”, Shin said during a meeting of the UN open-ended working group on security and the use of information and communication technologies.

He added that over the past two days of the meeting, some delegates have tried to "fix a particular state with the image of a violator of the rules of conduct and international law in the absence of any evidence." “In our opinion, there is a serious discussion about what evidence a state should present to accuse another state of illegal activities, what requirements should be placed on this evidence,” Shin emphasized (quoted by RIA Novosti).

Throughout 2021, Western countries have repeatedly claimed that Russia-linked hackers are behind attacks on digital infrastructure. So, in December 2020, it became known about a mass attack on government institutions and private companies in the United States , including the systems of the Ministry of Finance, the State Department, the Ministry of Energy and others. Washington admitted that hackers linked to Russian intelligence services were behind the hack.