Last Updated Oct 4, 2018 9:12 AM EDT
A cyberattack operation by Russian military intelligence agents targeting the global chemical weapons watchdog agency was thwarted earlier this year, the Dutch defense chief said Thursday. Defense Minister Ank Bijleveld-Schouten made the announcement alongside Britain’s ambassador to the Netherlands, saying the alleged operation to attack the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was disrupted on April 13.
The head of the Netherlands’ own military intelligence agency identified four men as the Russian agents behind the alleged operation by Russia’s GRU, and said they were expelled from the Netherlands immediately after the plot was foiled. Dutch Major General Onno Eichelsheim showed images of a rental vehicle that he said had been discovered near OPCW headquarters in The Hague, full of computer equipment and transformers used in the alleged plot.
He said the Russian agents arrived in the Netherlands three days before the plot was disrupted on April 13.
An image released on Oct. 4, 2018 by the Netherlands Defense Ministry shows a vehicle seized near the OPCW headquarters in The Hague, containing equipment allegedly used by Russian GRU military intelligence agents in a plot to hack the chemical weapons watchdog agency in April 2018.
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The revelation of the plot came just hours after Britain’s Defense Minister Gavin Williamson, at a NATO summit with U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and other allies, called Russia’s cyberattacks of recent years the “actions of a pariah state,” and vowed that NATO would “be exposing” Moscow’s nefarious acts.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned Russia, not long after the announcement by the Netherlands, to halt its “reckless” behavior. “Russia must stop its reckless pattern of behaviour, including the use of force against its neighbours, attempted interference in election processes, and widespread disinformation campaigns,” he said in Brussels.
In Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued what has now become a familiar denial of all allegations. Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the latest charges against Russia “big fantasies.” And at United Nations headquarters in New York, Russia’s deputy ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy ridiculed Britain over the allegations, calling them “Russiaphobic.” His tweet did not address the specific allegations against Russia’s military intelligence agency.
British Ambassador to the Netherlands Peter Wilson said the plot against the OPCW showed “complete disregard” by Russia for the agency’s mission to investigate illegal chemical weapons attacks around the world. He noted that the plot was disrupted in April as the OPCW worked to confirm Britain’s allegations that GRU agents attempted to murder Russian ex-double agent Sergei Skripal in England, and to confirm an alleged chemical attack by Syria’s Russian-backed military in Douma, Syria.
“The disruption of this attempted attack on the OPCW was down to the expertise and the professionalism of the Dutch security services in partnership with the United Kingdom,” Wilson said. “The OPCW is a respected international organization which is working to rid the world of chemical weapons. Hostile action against it demonstrates complete disregard for this vital mission.”
Dutch Defense Minister Bijleveld-Schouten said the Russian intelligence officers had also targeted the Netherlands-based investigation into the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine.
“We have been aware of the interest of Russian intelligence services in this investigation and have taken appropriate measures.” she said. “We remain very alert about this.”
Bijleveld-Schouten said the U.S. Department of Justice would disclose charges later on Thursday against Russian intelligence officers involved in the cyberattacks. She said the Russian Ambassador to the Netherlands was summoned on Thursday to the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be reprimanded for Moscow’s “unacceptable” behavior.
Ambassador Wilson said the plot in The Hague was not an isolated incident, accusing the same Russian military intelligence unit behind the thwarted plot of sending operatives around the world to carryout other, “brazen, close-access cyber operations.”
Britain and the Netherlands would be “stepping up our combined activity against” the GRU, Wilson said. “We will shine a light on their activities. We will expose their methods, and we will share this with our allies.”
He said increased sanctions against Russia would be sought in retaliation for Moscow’s “malign activity.”
British Prime Minister Theresa May and her Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte released a joint statement vowing to “defend international institutions from those that seek do to them harm,” and condemning the Russian military for its “disregard for the global values and rules that keep us all safe.”
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