The key facts

  • Russia's Ambassador to Denmark Vladimir Barbin stated that Denmark intercepts international digital traffic in the interests of American intelligence.
  • According to the diplomat, Copenhagen has not responded to Moscow's repeated appeals regarding the possible use of Danish infrastructure by Ukrainian hackers for attacks on Russia.
  • In February, the head of Danish military intelligence, Thomas Ahrenkiel, stated that the country has the authority to conduct offensive cyber operations abroad.

The ambassador's statement and the Danish context

Russia's Ambassador to Denmark Vladimir Barbin said in an interview with TASS that Denmark intercepts and processes international digital traffic passing through communication cables on its territory in the interests of American intelligence. He characterized Copenhagen's actions in cyberspace as provocative and aggressive. This was reported by Gazeta.Ru.

Moscow's unanswered requests

In addition, according to the ambassador, the Danish authorities did not respond to repeated appeals from the Russian side regarding the possible use of Denmark's infrastructure by Ukrainian hackers to carry out cyberattacks against Russia: Moscow, he claimed, received no reaction to its requests.

The Danish intelligence position

Barbin's statement echoes a position previously voiced by the Danish side: in February, the head of Denmark's military intelligence service, Thomas Ahrenkiel, statedthat the country has the authority to conduct offensive cyber operations against targets abroad. He emphasized that work in the unit involves not only protecting infrastructure but also actively 'compromising adversary networks' to collect classified information.

Rising number of attacks

It was previously reported that the number of critical web attacks on Russian companies grew by 108%.