MOSCOW. April 16 (Interfax) - The United Kingdom has not provided any evidence of Moscow's involvement in "malign cyber activity" in relation to Washington, the Russian embassy in London said on Thursday.
"We view the press release on 'exposing malign cyber activity of Russian special services' published by the Foreign Office of the United Kingdom on April 15 as nothing other than an attempt to play along with the U.S., which, in the wake of the latest failure of its own efforts to ensure cyber security, is trying to habitually put the blame on Russia," the Russian embassy said in a commentary shared with Interfax.
"At the same time, London is again resorting to groundless accusations with arguments in the manner of 'highly likely', without even bothering to provide any serious, let alone considerable, evidence on this score," it said.
"Simultaneously, they have managed to advertise their own cyber potential: generous financing for the National Cyber Security Center, military cyber forces and other organizations requires justification in the form of 'external threat'," the embassy said.
"We'd like to issue a reminder that the Russian side at different levels has repeatedly invited British colleagues to constructively discuss all pressing issues in cybersecurity in an expert format, which would be quite relevant to our countries and the international community in general," the embassy said.
"We can only regret that even in its new doctrinal documents London leaves no room for dialogue with Moscow on key topics of mutual interest. We also have plenty of questions to the British side, which demonstratively and tirelessly speaks about the presence of advanced offensive potentials in the cyber sphere, something which, together with the current policy toward Russia, points to a possible threat to the security of our country," it said.
"London's eagerness to vociferously assert itself as a crucial international player following its exit from the European Union has been all the more distinct recently. Well, it is up to the British authorities. However, we believe that it is extremely shortsighted to take attempts at self-affirmation to the detriment of mutually advantageous bilateral relations with Russia," the embassy said.
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said earlier London believes that the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service stood behind the cyberattack on SolarWinds.
On Thursday, the U.S. blacklisted six Russian tech companies in response to "alleged malign actions", including the SolarWinds hack. SolarWinds' clients include the majority of U.S. federal agencies and U.S. companies from the Fortune 500 list. The EU has supported these U.S. sanctions against Russia.