Russia rejects Washington's cyberattack claims, says it doesn’t engage in banditry like US

Russia has dismissed the United States’ accusations that Moscow might be preparing to launch cyberattacks against American assets, saying that Moscow does not engage in "banditry."

"The Russian Federation, unlike many Western countries, including the United States, does not engage in state-level banditry," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to Reuters.

On Monday night, the White House called on private companies to bolster their cyber defenses, claiming that the Russian government is exploring “options for potential cyberattacks” targeting US critical infrastructure in response to Western sanctions over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

“It’s not just in your interests that are at stake with the potential use of cybersecurity, it’s in the national interest’s stake, and I would respectfully suggest it’s a patriotic obligation for you to invest as much as you can in making sure — and we will help in any way — that you have built up your technologic capacity to deal with cyberattacks,” US President Joe Biden said.

White House deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology Anne Neuberger issued a similar statement earlier on Monday, calling on private companies to bolster their cyber defenses.

“There is no evidence of any specific cyberattack that we are anticipating,” she said. “There is some preparatory activity that we’re seeing and that is what we shared in a classified context with companies who we thought might be affected.”

“As the president has said, the United States is not seeking confrontation with Russia, but he has also said if Russia conducts disruptive cyberattacks against critical infrastructure, we will be prepared to respond,” Neuberger said.  

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby on Tuesday said the US Department of Defense has not suffered any cyberattacks, adding that US officials were open with American business leaders at Monday's meeting about the likely risk to corporations.

"We haven't seen anything affect our infrastructure or critical U.S government infrastructure," he told MNSBC. "We wanted to make sure that leaders knew and were aware that the Russians would probably try this kind of tactic going forward."

Biden: NATO-Russia clash would risk World War III

US President Joe Biden has reiterated that the United States and its NATO allies would not fight Russia in Ukraine, saying such a scenario will kick start "World War III."

Russia has rejected accusations of hacking and launching cyberattacks in the past.

In response to Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, Washington banned Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov from entering the United States. The US and its European allies also adopted sanctions that have largely cut Russia off financially from the rest of the world.

The US State Department last week announced more sanctions on Russia. It published a list of 11 individuals it said operated in the defense sector of the Russian Federation, including Viktor Zolotov, the commander-in-chief of Russia’s National Guard, and Alexander Mikheev, the director-general of Rosoboronexport, a state-controlled company trading in weapons.

US sanctions 'akin to a declaration of war'

The Biden administration also imposed harsh economic and banking sanctions on Russia in response to Russia's military actions in Ukraine.

Biden said the sanctions would limit Russia's ability to do business in dollars, euros, pounds and yen.

The US president claimed that the only other alternative to the sanctions would be to start a “Third World War.”

President Putin said earlier this month that Western sanctions on Russia were akin to a declaration of war.

He also warned that any attempt to impose a no-fly zone in Ukraine would lead to catastrophic consequences for the world.

Putin said his country is defending Russian-speaking communities through the "demilitarisation and de-Nazification" of Ukraine so that their neighbor became neutral and no longer threatened Russia.

"These sanctions that are being imposed are akin to a declaration of war but thank God it has not come to that," Putin said.

He warned that any attempt by another power to impose a no-fly zone in Ukraine would be considered by Russia to be a step into the military conflict.

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