Russian envoy claims UK carried out cyber attacks on vote for Putin rule until 2036

Ambassador Andrei Kelin says attacks on a constitutional referendum in Russia came from the United Kingdom

Russia's Ambassador to the UK has claimed cyber attacks on a controversial constitutional referendum came from the UK

Envoy Andrei Kelin said he was not accusing the British state of carrying out the alleged hacking, but claimed "several cyber attacks" originated from UK territory.

The referendum saw sweeping changes to Russia's constitution - paving the way for Vladimir Putin to remain in power until 2036.

The Ambassador also rejected claims his country's intelligence services tried to steal details of research into coronavirus vaccines.

Kelin said there was "no sense" in the allegations made by Britain, the United States and Canada.

He said: "I don't believe in this story at all, there is no sense in it."

He added "I learned about their (the hackers) existence from British media. In this world, to attribute any kind of computer hackers to any country, it is impossible."

The row blew up just days before the newly formed parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee prepares to release the long-awaited report into Russian interference in UK politics drawn up by its predecessor committee in the last parliament.

The three Western allies claimed on Thursday that a group of hackers, known as the Dukes or Cozy Bear - with links to Russian intelligence, had targeted research bodies around the world - including in the UK.

At the same time, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said "Russian actors" had tried to interfere in last year's general election by "amplifying" stolen government papers online.

The documents - relating to US-UK trade talks - were picked up by then Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who said they were evidence the Conservatives were preparing to open up the NHS to US pharmaceutical companies.

However in an interview with BBC1's The Andrew Marr show, to be screened on Sunday, Mr Kelin his country had no interest in interfering in British domestic politics.

"I do not see any point in using this subject as a matter of interference," he said.

"We do not interfere at all. We do not see any point in interference because for us, whether it will be (the) Conservative Party or Labour's party at the head of this country, we will try to settle relations and to establish better relations than now."

Asked whether he had watched UK drama 'The Salisbury Poisonings', Mr Kelin said he had only seen a few minutes of it, but had to stop watching because it was "so dull."

Mr Raab said the UK will make sure the world knows the nature of the "reprehensible behaviour" that Russia is engaged in.

He told Sky News' Sophy Ridge programme: "We're absolutely confident that the Russian intelligence agencies were engaged in a cyber attack on research and development efforts and organisations in this country and internationally with a view either to sabotage or to profit from the R&D that was taking place.

"And I think the point is first of all we've seen this as part of a wider systematic approach to cyber taken by Russia and at the time that the world is coming together to try and tackle Covid-19, particularly come up with a global solution for a vaccine, I think it's outrageous and reprehensible that the Russian Government is engaged in this activity.

"So what we're doing with our allies is making sure people know, making sure the organisations know so that they can better defend against it, but also just calling Russia out, we will do this.

"Now you will see us holding Russia to account and making sure that the world knows the nature of the reprehensible behaviour that they're engaged in."

Mr Raab added: "As a leading member of the international community, a permanent member of the Security Council, Russia should be engaged in that collaborative international effort."

Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said that Labour "got it wrong" on Russia, having "prevaricated" following the attack on Salisbury.

She told Sophy Ridge: "I think we got it wrong on Russia and I made a feature of this during the Labour leadership campaign because I felt that it really needed to be said.

"When the Salisbury attacks happened, we prevaricated, we equivocated, we called for dialogue at a moment when chemical weapons had been used on the streets of the UK.

"And what that did was not only to let an authoritarian regime that has invaded its neighbours, that has interfered in elections across European democratic countries over several years, that has had an appalling record of human rights against its own people, against LGBT people, Muslims and other minorities, and used chemical weapons on the streets of the UK, we didn't just let them off the hook, we also let the Conservative Government off the hook.

"Because I believe the Conservatives have been desperately slow to wake up to the threat that is posed by the current Putin administration and we should have been much quicker to act in relation to that."

Ms Nandy said: "By prevaricating about issues like Salisbury, we let the Tories off the hook. I strongly believe that that has to change and that we have to have a much more strategic approach to Russia."