Russia hits out over research theft claim

Russia's ambassador to the United Kingdom on Sunday rejected accusations that Kremlin-backed hackers have been trying to steal coronavirus vaccine research.

"I don't believe in this story at all. There is no sense in it," Andrei Kelin said in interview on BBC TV when asked about the claims made by Britain's National Cyber Security Center last week.

As well as denying the hacking allegations, Kelin said Moscow would hit back at those who had imposed sanctions on targeted Russians in connection with the UK's Magnitsky Act, newly introduced legislation passed in response to the 2009 death of businessman Sergei Magnitsky.

The security agency said it was more than 95 percent certain that the hacker group it believes responsible for the targeting of vaccine development information is part of Russian intelligence services. The agency said the group went by the name The Dukes or Cozy Bear.

"I learned about their existence from British media," Kelin said in his rejection of the hacking allegations.

Moscow doesn't need any extra information on the British candidate vaccine－being trialed by Oxford University in a partnership with drugmaker AstraZeneca－as there's already a contract with local company P-Pharm for its commercial production in Russia, he said.

'Find the right vaccine'

Aside from the P-Pharm link with the Oxford developers, Russia has 26 laboratories working to "find the right vaccine" at home, said Kelin, adding that Russia's health ministry was expecting three or four vaccines from those studies to come to the market eventually.

"The British vaccine, around which all this mess is going around, is just one product out of many," the ambassador said. Another reason that made the British claims questionable was that "in this world, to attribute any kind of computer hackers to any country is impossible", he said.

Kelin told the BBC program that "several cyberattacks proceeding from the territory of the UK" were recorded during voting for Russian constitutional amendments that began late last month, "but we don't accuse the UK of what has happened".

The ambassador also rejected claims by British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab that "it is almost certain" that some Russian actors had tried to interfere in the UK's 2019 general election through "online amplification" of leaked documents from trade talks between London and Washington.

"We do not interfere at all," he said. "We do not see any point in interference because for us, whether it will be the Conservative Party or the Labour Party at the head of this country, we will try to settle relations and to establish better relations than we have now."

In relation to the UK sanctions imposed on some Russians, Kelin said Moscow has vowed to explore ways to punish those behind the decision.

That's "because sanctions are illegal", said the ambassador, adding: "There is only one body who can impose sanctions and it is the United Nations."