According to Maria Zakharova, "the US intelligence community is using a false flag for provocations to get more funds from the budget along with solving operational tasks."
"The accusations against Moscow are unfounded and look more and more absurd," the diplomat stated at a briefing.
"The administration of [US President Joe] Biden, in ‘highly likely’ style and the tradition of blaming Moscow for all imaginable and unthinkable sins, justified the 95th wave of anti-Russian sanctions by a hacking [attack] on equipment used by US state institutions," she added.
Last year, SolarWinds – a major Texas-based information technology firm that supported government data – came under a massive cyberattack. Hackers gained access to the data of private companies like the elite cybersecurity firm FireEye and the upper echelons of the US government, including the Department of Homeland Security and the Treasury Department. The intruders reportedly used corrupted SolarWinds software to install malicious programmes.
