Moscow/Beijing/Washington: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov while warning the United States against stirring up its satellites against Russia, said Americans cannot “get away with it”, and said it is a “big delusion if they try to bring the world to the brink of a third world war“.
“Washington believes that its self-preservation is ensured by the Atlantic Ocean,” Lavrov stated today.
China too, today joined Russia in accusing the USA of cyber attacks on China’s “critical” infrastructure. “Since last year, China’s cybersecurity agencies have released reports revealing the US government’s long-running cyber attacks on China’s critical infrastructure. We will continue to take necessary action to prevent and stop all kinds of cyber attacks that threaten the security of our critical infrastructure,” Beijing stated.
China also noted “with concern” that the US National Security Agency, which also serves as the US Cyber Force Command, declared last year that the critical infrastructure of other countries of the world “is a legitimate target” for US cyber-attacks.
“Such an irresponsible policy puts the world’s critical infrastructure at great risk. The possibility of a Nord Stream-style attack in cyberspace has risen considerably,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing today.
She pointed out that the perpetrators of the Nord Stream blasts have yet to be brought to justice. “Compared to physical sabotage, how to deal with cyber attacks on critical infrastructure is a bigger challenge,” she said.
Her reference to Nord Stream assumes significance in light of the summoning of the ambassadors of Germany, Denmark and Sweden to the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow, where they were presented with a strong protest by Russia in connection with the “lack of results in the national investigations by the authorities of these countries supposedly being conducted in the sabotage attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines in September 2022”. Russia said it pointed out to them the inability to ensure transparency in their investigative actions and declared its intention “to compel the authorities in the FRG [Federal Republic of Germany], Denmark and Sweden to conduct an objective and comprehensive investigation into the sabotage attacks on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines with the mandatory inclusion of Russia”.
Amid heightened accusations against each other over cyber attacks, it may be mentioned that the US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller yesterday referred to the US Intelligence Community assessment that “China almost certainly is capable of launching cyber-attacks that could disrupt critical infrastructure services within the United States, including against oil and gas pipelines and rail systems”. The US Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro too earlier claimed that the US Navy “has been impacted” by the cyberattacks from China, adding that it was “no surprise that China has been behaving in this manner, not just for the last couple years, but for decades.”
– global bihari bureau
