Antonov Condemns U.S. Sanctions against Russian Research Institute

Oct. 24, 2020 (EIRNS)—In reaction to the U.S. Treasury Department imposing sanctions on the Russian Central Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics, Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov issued a strong statement condemning it as illegitimate.

“We completely reject the charges brought by the administration against the Federal State Unitary Enterprise ‘Central Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics,’ ” Antonov said, according to the embassy press service. “We emphasize once again the illegitimacy of any one-sided restrictions. Russia, unlike the United States, does not conduct offensive operations in the cyber domain,” he stated. “Malicious activity in the information space is contrary to the principles of our foreign policy, national interests and understanding of interstate relations,” reported TASS.

“We call on the United States to abandon the vicious practice of unfounded accusations. We proceed from the fact that the interests of our countries are in line with a professional dialogue on international information security, which President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin proposed to restore,” the ambassador stated.

Imposed under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), the sanctions were in reaction to claims that the institute was “connected to the destructive Triton malware” which “was designed specifically to target and manipulate industrial safety systems.” Such systems allow the emergency shutdown of the equipment at an enterprise in case of a dangerous situation.

This can be taken as the U.S. answer to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s late September call to resume discussions on cooperation in cyber security.