BY BEN GLAZE
The Kremlin was blamed for hacking Democrat emails in the run-up to the US election - and Barack Obama last week vowed to hit back
Cyber warfare waged by Russians is ‘part of modern life’, a Government minister has admitted.
The Kremlin was blamed for hacking Democrat emails in the run-up to the US election - and Barack Obama last week vowed to hit back.
Now Foreign Office Minister Sir Alan Duncan has claimed Moscow is targeting political campaigns with hi-tech attacks.
Sir Alan told the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee: “There’s no doubt that, using modern technology, they are interfering in many parts of the world.
“We just have to accept it as a fact that cyber warfare is now a part of modern life and the Russians are using it as best they can in a political dimension, not just in the commercial one.
“There is political interference through cyber and that is one of the threats which we have to be aware of, be on our guard and be able to defend.
“The world is changing, there are new threats.”
Russia has been accused of increasing its aggression against Britain.
Recent months have seen Vladimir Putin send long-range bombers towards UK air space to test radar and RAF air defences.
In October a Russian flotilla sailed through the English Channel on its way to Syria and in June Royal Navy ships intercepted a Russian sub in the North Sea.
Putin’s forces have been accused of war crimes in the battle for the Syrian city of Aleppo.
They have also been criticised over the invasion of Crimea in 2014 and the backing of Ukrainian rebels in the same year.
Sir Alan said: “They are doing things of which we disapprove and of which we should disapprove.
“They are a growing cyber threat. Some of their public comments stray rather far from the truth.
“Their challenge to the territorial integrity of Ukraine is not acceptable “They have annexed Crimea and I think the prosecution of the conflict in Aleppo is unacceptable.
“We have to be firm in making a stand against this.”
Labour MP Mike Gapes, who sits on the committee, accused the Kremlin of ‘undermining the values of the democratic, liberal open-minded western model, whether it’s in the US or European Union’.
He added: “Russia is pursuing asymmetric warfare to undermine the solidarity of Nato and the European Union.”
Citing the murder of the dissident Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006, Sir Alan said: “Obviously we have our Litvinenko difficulties, so in terms of our personal relationships there have been impediments and there have also been issues which we feel very strongly about such as Ukraine and subsequently Aleppo.
“We need to balance the respect they deserve with firm talk about the things of which we thoroughly disapprove.
“I hope that the balance of language and action is finding its feet perhaps a little bit more than it has done in the past and our attitude ... is one of very firm views where we think they are behaving improperly - such as challenging other countries’ territorial integrity - but showing them the proper respect that a great nation is due.
“That is the balance.”
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