Russia could face further sanctions over wave of cyber attacks – Hunt

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Russia could face further sanctions in the wake of “hard evidence” the Russian military tried to hack the global chemical weapons watchdog investigating the Salisbury nerve agent attack.

British intelligence helped thwart the operation, which was launched in April against the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a month after the Salisbury Novichok poisoning which targeted former Russian spy Sergei Skripal.

Details were revealed on Thursday, hours after the UK Government accused the GRU of carrying out a wave of other cyber attacks across the globe.

Asked what actions, beyond words, the UK will take over Russia’s cyber activity, Mr Hunt said the first action is to expose it.

“The words matter because there are countries all over the world that are hearing both sides of the story – they’re hearing what the Russians say as well,” he said.

“This is the evidence – that what we are getting from Russia is fake news, and here is the hard evidence of Russian military activity.

“But of course it will go beyond that, and that is why we will be discussing with our allies what further sanctions should be imposed.

“We will also be discussing how we need – working with our friends and allies – to counter this pattern of cyber attacks, which is the new type of attack that the whole world is having to deal with.”

Officials in the Netherlands, where OPCW is based, said four Russians had been expelled after the alleged cyber strike.

The UK Government also accused one of those GRU officers escorted out of the Netherlands of targeting the Malaysian investigation into the shooting down of flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014 when over 300 people travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur died.