The Kremlin has accused the United States of meddling in Russia's upcoming presidential election, and even accused Uncle Sam of planning a cyberattack on the country's online voting system.
The snoops did not provide any proof to support these claims.
They also reportedly said any foreign interference would be considered an act of aggression - while also giving President Vladimir Putin an easy scapegoat if he doesn't garner 100 percent of the popular vote, which begins March 15.
We would be remiss not to mention the irony in this statement - and Russian elections, in general.
Putin, who controls the SVR and the election process, will undoubtedly win the vote.
The world has also seen what happens to Putin's political opponents.
The Russian foreign intelligence service's claims also come about a week after the Kremlin pinky-swore it wouldn't meddle in the US presidential election in November, and dismissed American claims that it did try to sway the outcome in 2016 and 2020.
The US has repeatedly accused Russia of trying to undermine and muck around with both, even indicting Russian troll farm the Internet Research Agency for alleged 2016 election interference [PDF].
Despite these and more recent attempts to sway or put off voters, the Kremlin hasn't had much luck influencing Americans to elect any Putin-backed candidates.
At least thus far in the 2024 election season, that still holds true.
This Cyber News was published on go.theregister.com. Publication date: Mon, 11 Mar 2024 22:13:06 +0000