Putin hopes that US coops with Russia on cybersecurity

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Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country hopes to cooperate with the United States in combating cybercrime.

In an interview with the American NBC, Putin indicated that "We have been accused of all kinds of things; election interference, cyberattacks, and so on and so forth. And not once, not once, not one time, did they bother to produce any kind of evidence or proof. Just unfounded accusations."

Putin announced Sunday that his country would "be ready" to extradite the perpetrators of cyber attacks to the United States if Washington did the same to Moscow and if the two countries reached an agreement leading to that.

Biden, for his part, indicated a few days ago that he does not know whether he and his Russian counterpart will be able to reach an understanding on the issue of cybersecurity, saying that this will be the subject of upcoming discussions during their bilateral summit in Geneva on June 16.

In another context, Putin stressed, "We are interested in continuing work with the US in [space], and we will continue to do so if our US partners don't refuse to do that."

He expressed Moscow's concern about the active actions of the United States and NATO member states in cyberspace, he said that the United States is a high-tech country.

President Putin also addressed NATO's military movements, saying, "NATO routinely conducts military exercises near the Russian border," and referred to US military exercises in Alaska. "Imagine if we sent our troops into direct proximity to your borders. What would have been your response?" he added.

Since Biden proposed holding the summit with Putin about two months ago, the White House has confirmed that the US president will raise the issue of cyberattacks using malicious software to demand ransom from Russia during his meeting with Putin.