President Vladimir Putin has described suggestions the Russian state was linked to high profile ransomware attacks in the United States as absurd and an attempt to stir trouble ahead of his summit this month with U.S. President Joe Biden.
A hack of Brazilian meatpacker JBS’s facilities in the United States, reported this week, is the third such ransomware hack in the country since Biden took office in January.
JBS told the White House it originated from a criminal organisation likely based in Russia.
Putin, speaking on the sidelines of the St Petersburg Economic Forum, told Russia’s state TV Channel One that the idea of Russian state involvement was absurd.
He said he was encouraged however, by what he said were efforts by some people in the United States to question the substance of such allegations and try to work out what is really going on.
Biden, who is due to hold talks with Putin in Geneva on June 16, is expected to discuss the hacking attacks with the Russian leader to see what Moscow could do to prevent such cyber assaults.
U.S. officials have spoken of criminal gangs based in Eastern Europe or Russia as the probable culprits. But Kremlin critics have pointed the finger at the Russian state itself, saying it must have had knowledge of the attacks and possibly even be directing them.
Earlier on Friday, Putin told the same economic forum that the United States was openly trying to hold back Russia’s development and accused Washington of wielding the dollar as a tool of economic and political competition.
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