The Justice Department says seven Russian military spies were indicted on cyber hacking charges linked to the leaking of Olympic athletes’ drug-test data in an attempt to undermine international efforts to expose Russian doping, the Washington Post reports. Four officers of Russia’ GRU military intelligence agency also were charged with targeting organizations probing Russia’s alleged use of chemical weapons, including the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. Three were indicted in July for conspiring to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. The indictment further exposes Moscow’s widespread campaign to discredit western democracy and international institutions through disinformation and other measures. Officials said the aim is to alter perceptions of the truth.
The British government on Thursday accused the GRU of “reckless and indiscriminate cyberattacks,” blaming it for everything from the hacking of top athletes’ medical records to disruptions on the Kiev subway system to the theft of emails at the Democratic National Committee. Dutch security officials expelled four Russians from the Netherlands for trying to hack into the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague. “Where Russia acts in an indiscriminate and reckless way, where they have done in terms of these cyberattacks, we will be exposing them,” said British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson at a meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and other NATO defense ministers in Brussels. “We believe that by doing so, this will act as a disincentive for acting in such a way in the future.” Russia’s Foreign Ministry dismissed the charges as “Western spy mania,” according to Russian media.