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Instead of recognizing the growing intellectual value of Sputnik and RT, Moscow is groundlessly accused of hacking, according to Russia's ambassador at large

The statements on Russian alleged cyberattacks made by numerous Western countries are an attempt to replace the fact of efficient work conducted by Russian media, Russian president's special representative for international cooperation in the field of information security Andrei Krutskikh said on Wednesday.

"All these talks are, in my opinion, a cover up of a coordinated Western approach, which means that they have to admit themselves that the Russian media represented by RT, Sputnik and others began to work on the information field more effectively, in a more clever way, more objectively for the citizens of Europe and world... This is a substitution. The fact that we have learned to effectively work in the information field, the West explains by hacking," Krutskikh, who is also Russian Foreign Ministry Ambassador at Large, told reporters.

He pointed out that people were interested in the information product that was providing an alternative vision, which was then called "propaganda." Therefore, it seemed that it was not various media competing, but cyberhackers.

On Monday, Richard Ferrand, the general secretary of En Marche! party headed by French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron, said that there had been "thousands of attacks" against party's IT systems, data bases, websites originating in Russia. According to Ferrand, the alleged attacks were due to Macron seeking "strong Europe in the face of Russia," while other presidential candidates had a more friendly stance on Moscow.

On Tuesday, the Kremlin reacted to the claims, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov calling the accusations "absurd." On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the reports cited by Ferrand actually had no links to RT and Sputnik News, accused by him.

Moscow has been facing numerous accusations over alleged attempts to interfere in the Western elections providing no evidence. In December 2016, reports emerged that the German government feared potential influence on the 2017 parliamentary elections from Russia after the US Central Intelligence Agency had accused Moscow of carrying out cyberattacks against the Democratic National Committee (DNC) computer systems in an attempt to influence the November US presidential election in favor of Donald Trump.