Top Russian and American officials are exchanging barbs in Germany over the US indictment of 13 Russians accused of an elaborate plot to disrupt the 2016 presidential election.
On Saturday, H R McMaster, US President Donald Trump's national security adviser, said at the Munich Security Conference that the federal indictments showed the US was becoming "more and more adept at tracing the origins of this espionage and subversion".
"As you can see with the FBI indictment, the evidence is now really incontrovertible and available in the public domain," McMaster told a Russian delegate to the conference.
Just minutes before, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had dismissed the indictments as "just blabber", according to remarks through an interpreter.
The two men addressed the conference of top world leaders, defence officials and diplomats, giving more general back-to-back opening remarks. Both were immediately hit with blunt questions about the US indictment and the broader issue of cyber attacks.
In Russia, news of the indictments was met with more scorn.
"There are no official claims, there are no proofs for this. That's why they are just children's statements," Andrei Kutskikh, the presidential envoy for international information security, told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
McMaster also scoffed at the suggestion that the US would work with Russia on cyber security issues.
"I'm surprised there are any Russian cyber-experts available based on how active most of them have been undermining our democracies in the West," he said to laughter. "So I would just say that we would love to have a cyber dialogue when Russia is sincere."
The federal indictment brought Friday by special counsel Robert Mueller represents the most detailed allegations to date of illegal Russian meddling during the campaign that sent Trump to the White House.
Lavrov argued that US officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, have said no country influenced the US election results.
The indictment charged 13 Russians with running a huge but hidden social media trolling campaign aimed in part at helping Republican Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.
It outlined the first criminal charges against Russians believed to have secretly worked to influence the US election's outcome.
According to the indictment, the Russian organisation was funded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a wealthy St Petersburg businessman with ties to the Russian government and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Australian Associated Press
