Russian ambassador rejects vaccine hacking claims
Russia's ambassador to the united kingdom has rejected allegations that his country's intelligence services tried to steal coronavirus vaccine research.
"I don't have confidence in this story at all, there is absolutely no sense in it," Andrei Kelin told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.
On Thursday, UK security services said hackers targeting vaccine developers "almost certainly" operated as "part of Russian intelligence services".
Mr Kelin also rejected ideas that Russia had interfered in UK politics.
Earlier this week, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Russians probably sought to interfere in the 2019 UK election through illicitly-acquired documents.
The papers, which emerged online, detailed UK-US trade discussions and were utilized by Labour in its election campaign.
"I really do not see any point in using this subject as a matter of interference," Mr Kelin said.
"We do not interfere at all. We do not see any point in interference because for us, whether it will be [the] Conservative Party or Labour's party at the top of the country, we will attempt to settle relations and establish better relations than now."
The interview comes days before a report into allegations of wider Russian interference into UK democracy is because of be published by Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee.
On Thursday, UK, US and Canada security services said a hacking group called APT29 had targeted various organisations involved in Covid-19 vaccine development, with the likely intention of stealing information.
The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said it had been more than 95% sure that the group, generally known as The Dukes or Cozy Bear, was part of Russian intelligence services.
Asked whether that was true, Mr Kelin did not directly answer but said: "I learned all about their existence from British media."
"In this world, to attribute almost any computer hackers to any country, it is impossible," he said.
Mr Kelin continued to dismiss an indicator that it would be an "advantage" for Russia to learn about vaccines in development. He said Russian pharmaceutical company R-Pharm had already entered a partnership with AstraZeneca to manufacture the coronavirus vaccine being developed at the University of Oxford, should it prove effective.
Elsewhere in the BBC interview, Mr Kelin said Russian officials studying the country's recent constitutional referendum discovered "several cyber-attacks" from UK territory.
Fourteen days ago, Russia voted in favour of a wide-ranging group of constitutional changes, including clauses banning same-sex marriage and which makes it possible for President Vladimir Putin in which to stay power until 2036.
Mr Kelin stressed that Russia had not been "accusing the uk as circumstances" of being mixed up in cyber-attacks and did not give further details as to their nature.
'Some spy story'
Andrew Marr also asked Mr Kelin whether he had seen the recent BBC miniseries, The Salisbury Poisonings, which dramatised the poisoning of former spy and MI6 informant Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
"I saw part of them," he said, adding that it had been "so dull" he cannot watch the three-part series to the end.
THE UNITED KINGDOM has accused two Russian military intelligence officers to be behind the poisonings however the ambassador indicated Moscow was keen to move on from the incident, saying: "We still do not understand why some spy story should disrupt these important business relations which is very useful to Britain... when it's exiting from europe.
"We are ready to turn the page and we are prepared to work with Britain."
