"On May 24, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Colombia to the Russian Federation, Alfonso Lopez Caballero, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry to express surprise at the groundless and unsubstantiated statements by Colombian Defense Minister Diego Molano about 'cyberattacks carried out from Russia.' This statement was made by Diego Molano in the context of an alleged foreign intervention in order to spur internal political instability and mass protests in Colombia," the ministry said in a statement.
10 May 2021, 18:06 GMT
The Russian side stressed that Moscow had repeatedly offered its Colombian partners to establish cooperation in the field of maintaining international information security.
"If the Colombian side has confirmed facts of computer attacks and is really interested in establishing their origin, there are official channels for the exchange of information and the corresponding infrastructure. In Russia, the authorized body is the National Coordination Center for Computer Incidents," the ministry said.
The ministry added that earlier the Russian authorities had sent a draft agreement on legal assistance, but the Colombian side refused to discuss it.
"We again call on our partners to respond to our calls in order to avoid misunderstandings in the future. We also reaffirm our readiness to cooperate with our Colombian colleagues on the entire spectrum of issues in the interests of maintaining relations in the spirit of friendship and mutual respect that historically link Russia and Colombia," it said.
