text: Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Gordon Corera looks at why the Russian cyber plot sting was surprising 
   
   Russian spies have been accused of involvement in a series of cyber-plots across the globe, leading the US to level charges against seven agents. 
   
   The US justice department said targets included the global chemical weapons watchdog, anti-doping agencies and a US nuclear company. 
   
   The allegations are part of an organised push-back against alleged Russian cyber-attacks around the world. 
   
   Russia earlier dismissed the allegations as "Western spy mania". 
   
   What is Russia accused of? 
   
   The Netherlands has accused four Russians of plotting to hack the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which had been probing the chemical attack on a Russian ex-spy in the UK 
   
   The UK government accused the GRU of being behind four high-profile cyber-attacks, whose targets included firms in Russia and Ukraine; the US Democratic Party; and a small TV network in the UK 
   
   The US said its anti-doping agency, football's governing body Fifa and the US nuclear energy company Westinghouse were targeted by Russian intelligence 
   
   Canada said "with high confidence" that breaches at its centre for ethics in sports and at the Montreal-based World Anti-Doping Agency were carried out by Russian intelligence 
   
   Added to this, the Dutch authorities have said a laptop seized from the four suspects in April was found to have been used in Brazil, Switzerland and Malaysia. 
   
   In Malaysia, the Netherlands said, it was used to target the investigation into the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014 over territory held by Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine. All 298 people on board were killed. 
   
   A series of astonishing revelations 
   
   by James Landale, BBC diplomatic correspondent 
   
   The revelations about how the British and Dutch security agencies disrupted the operations of the GRU are astonishing in their detail and their openness. 
   
   This is not what secretive intelligence agencies normally do. 
   
   But the willingness of both countries to be so candid illustrates how determined both they and some other Western governments are to try to push back against what they see as a concerted pattern of Russian aggression. 
   
   "I imagine Mr Putin is shouting at one or two people right now," a cheerful British official told me. 
   
   What has Russia said? 
   
   Russia's foreign ministry - which had earlier dismissed the allegations from the UK and the Netherlands as "Western spy mania" - released an official statement late on Thursday, saying it was the victim of "yet another stage-managed propaganda campaign". 
   
   "It's unclear who is supposed to believe these statements accusing Russian citizens of attempting to mount cyber-attacks against the OPCW and trying to obtain data related to the Malaysian flight MH17, as if it is necessary to be near the target of your attack," it said. 
   
   "Any Russian citizen carrying a mobile device is seen as a spy," the statement added. 
   
   What have the other countries said? 
   
   John Demers, US Assistant Attorney General for National Security, told a press conference in Washington that many of the attacks were aimed at delegitimizing sports bodies and "altering perceptions of the truth". 
   
   He said the attacks were how Russia retaliated for bans on its athletes following evidence it was systematically using drugs to enhance their performance. 
   
   As a result of the findings, the US has indicted seven people, four of whom were the men expelled from the Netherlands, while the other three were among those charged in July with hacking Democratic officials during the 2016 US elections. 
   
   Image copyright FBI Image caption The FBI released this "wanted" poster, naming and picturing the seven men 
   
   They were also charged with wire fraud, identity theft and money laundering. 
   
   All seven men are thought to be in Russia, which does not have an extradition treaty with the US. 
   
   A joint statement from British Prime Minister Theresa May and her Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte said the alleged plot against the OPCW demonstrated "the GRU's disregard for global values and rules that keep us all safe". 
   
   Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the UK was discussing further sanctions against Russia with its allies. 
   
   The EU has also denounced the alleged cyber-plots. 
   
   What were the suspects doing in the Netherlands? 
   
   The four suspects identified by Dutch officials had diplomatic passports - which meant the Netherlands could not arrest them as diplomats are in theory immune from prosecution in their host country - and included two IT experts and two support agents, officials said. 
   
   The four hired a car and parked it in the car park of the Marriot hotel in The Hague, which is next to the OPCW office, to hack into the OPCW's wifi network, Major General Onno Eichelsheim from the Dutch MIVD intelligence service said. 
   
   Image copyright Dutch Government Image caption The suspects were allegedly found to have specialist hacking equipment 
   
   Equipment in the car boot was pointed at the OPCW and was being used to intercept login details, he said, adding that the antenna for the operation lay under a jacket on the car's rear shelf. 
   
   Image copyright Ministrie van Defensie 
   
   When the men were intercepted they tried to destroy one of the mobile phones they were carrying, Maj Gen Eichelsheim said. 
   
   Image copyright Ministrie van Defensie 
   
   He said one of their mobile phones was found to have been activated near the GRU building in Moscow, while another carried a receipt for a taxi journey from a street near the GRU to the airport. 
   
   Maj Gen Eichelsheim said the group were planning to travel to Switzerland, to a laboratory in Spiez where the OPCW analysed samples. 
   
   They never made it. Instead, the four were immediately escorted out of the country, he added. 
   
   Who are the suspects? 
   
   They were named by the MIVD as hackers Alexei Morenets and Yevgeny Serebriakov, and support agents Oleg Sotnikov and Alexei Minin. 
   
   Image copyright Dutch Government Image caption Four suspects travelled to the Netherlands on diplomatic passports earlier this year 
   
   Officials said they were from the GRU's Unit 26165, which has also been known as APT 28. The UK's ambassador to the Netherlands, Peter Wilson, said the unit had "sent officers around the world to conduct brazen close access cyber-operations" - which involve hacking into wifi networks. 
   
   He said the hackers were planning to travel on to the OPCW-certified laboratory in Spiez near Berne in Switzerland, where the Novichok nerve agent used in March's attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the British city of Salisbury was identified. 
   
   Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption What do we know about the Russian intelligence organisation, the GRU? 
   
   At the time the Russian operation was disrupted, the OPCW was investigating the Skripal case as well as an alleged chemical attack in April on the Syrian town of Douma near Damascus by Russian-backed government forces, the MIVD said. 
   
   "With its aggressive cyber-campaigns, we see the GRU trying to clean up Russia's own mess - be it the doping uncovered by Wada [the World Anti-Doping Agency] or the nerve agent identified by the OPCW," Mr Wilson said. 
   
   What was on their computer? 
   
   A laptop seized from the suspects was found to have been used in Brazil, Switzerland and Malaysia, the Dutch officials said. 
   
   The cyber-operation in Malaysia targeted the attorney general's office and Malaysian police as well as the investigation into MH17's shooting down, Ambassador Wilson said. 
   
   Earlier this year Dutch-led international investigators concluded that a missile that brought down MH17 belonged to a Russian brigade. Russia has denied any involvement in the plane's destruction, which led to the deaths of many Dutch citizens. 
   
   Data from the laptop showed it was also present in the Swiss city of Lausanne where it was linked to the hacking of a laptop belonging to Wada, which has exposed doping by Russian athletes. ||||| A Russian cyber-attack on the headquarters of the international chemical weapons watchdog was disrupted by Dutch military intelligence just weeks after the Salisbury novichok attack, it emerged on Thursday, amid fresh revelations of spying that escalated the diplomatic war between the west and Vladimir Putin. 
   
   The incident, which was thwarted with the help of British intelligence officials, came after the Sandworm cybercrime unit of the Russian military intelligence agency GRU had attempted unsuccessfully to hack the UK Foreign Office in March and the Porton Down chemical weapons facility in April. 
   
   Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, said on Thursday that Moscow could face further sanctions as a result of an astonishingly detailed evidence trail laid out in the Netherlands, the UK and the US. 
   
   Defence secretary Gavin Williamson said Russia was now a “pariah state”, while the Russian foreign ministry dismissed the allegations on Thursday night and claimed the west was gripped by “spy mania”. 
   
   Four Russian intelligence officers, believed to have been part of a GRU “cleanup” unit for earlier failed operations, travelled to The Hague on diplomatic passports in April after unsuccessfully launching a remote attack. 
   
   At the time, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons was investigating the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the UK, as well as a chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria. 
   
   The British ambassador to the Netherlands, Peter Wilson, said: “With its aggressive cyber campaigns, we see the GRU trying to clean up Russia’s own mess – be it the doping uncovered by Wada [the World Anti-Doping Agency] or the nerve agent identified by the OPCW.” 
   
   The US government announced criminal charges against the intelligence officers for targeting the watchdog, including computer hacking, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering to promote Russian interests by nefarious means. 
   
   They were also charged, along with three more of their colleagues, with being part of the Fancy Bears group that hacked anti-doping authorities and leaked records of sports stars including Sir Bradley Wiggins and Sir Mo Farah at a time when Russia was facing allegations of state-sponsored cheating. 
   
   Facebook Twitter Pinterest The passports of the four men apprehended by Dutch authorities. Photograph: Netherlands police 
   
   The Russian spies were named by the Dutch authorities as cyber experts Evgenii Serebriakov, 37, and Aleksei Morenets, 41, as well as Oleg Sotnikov, and Alexey Minin, both 46, who provided human intelligence. 
   
   They appeared to have made little attempt to hide their presence in the country, arriving together with Russian diplomatic passports at Schiphol airport, where they were captured on CCTV being met by a Russian embassy official. Once through customs and immigration controls, they hired a car and headed for The Hague. 
   
   Senior British security officials said they were caught “in flagrante” by Dutch intelligence three days later, on 13 April, sitting in their hire car which was parked close to the OPCW building. They tried – and failed – to destroy their equipment and were immediately put on a plane back to Moscow. 
   
   In the back of the vehicle, investigators found a laptop connected to a 4G mobile and a wifi panel antenna, partially hidden under a coat, as well as other specialist hacking equipment. They also recovered €20,000 and US$20,000 in cash, as well as taxi receipts from a GRU facility in Moscow and reconnaissance maps. 
   
   Train tickets to Basel were also found, along with evidence of online searches for the Spiez lab, Switzerland’s institute for nuclear, biological and chemical protection which had confirmed the British claim that the Skripals had been exposed to the military-grade nerve agent novichok. 
   
   The manager of the Marriott hotel next door to the OPCW headquarters where the four alleged Russian spies were staying said they were seized without force and with “no James Bond involved”. Vincent Pahlplatz told Associated Press the quartet were arrested by Dutch officers in broad daylight as they walked out of a lift. 
   
   Senior British security officials said the same GRU “close access” unit had previously travelled to Malaysia to attempt to hack the investigation into Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which investigators have said was shot down by a Russian military missile, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew on board. 
   
   They said the unit, known in the Russian military as 26165, had also travelled to Switzerland during a Wada conference, at which officials from the International Olympic Committee and the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport were the victims of a cyber-attack, as well as to Brazil. 
   
   It emerged last month that the Dutch government had expelled Russian spies in April after they were accused of planning to hack into the Spiez laboratory. 
   
   In a joint statement on Thursday, the British prime minister, Theresa May, and her Dutch counterpart, Mark Rutte, said: “This attempt to access the secure systems of an international organisation working to rid the world of chemical weapons demonstrates the GRU’s disregard for the global values and rules than keep us all safe. 
   
   “Our action today reinforces the clear message from the international community: we will uphold the rules-based international system, and defend international institutions from those that seek to do them harm.” 
   
   Last month, May pledged to step up action against Russian intelligence following the Salisbury attack. 
   
   Facebook Twitter Pinterest The boot of a vehicle found outside the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague. Photograph: Netherlands defence ministry 
   
   In a further blow to the GRU, Bellingcat, the investigative website, revealed that Russia appeared to have inadvertently identified the names and phone numbers of nearly 305 of its agents in its cyber-warfare department. 
   
   The names appear on a list of individuals that have access to cars registered to the headquarters of the GRU’s cyber division. Bellingcat said it may constitute “one of the largest mass breaches” of personal data in recent intelligence service history. 
   
   Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman, dismissed the hacking accusations as “big fantasies”. A senior British security official said: “For the GRU to get caught in this way would be considered a pretty bad day.” 
   
   The Dutch defence minister, Ank Bijleveld, said Russian diplomats had been summoned to the foreign ministry. She told reporters the decision to publicise the failed attack was a “far-reaching and unusual measure” designed to “send a very strong signal” to the Kremlin that such behaviour would not be tolerated. 
   
   Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mobile phones, cameras and tablets found in the hire car. Photograph: Netherlands defence ministry 
   
   The head of Dutch counter-intelligence said analysis of the men’s laptops showed they had links to operations in Switzerland and Malaysia. 
   
   A senior British security official, commenting on the possible link to the Skripal investigation, said: “It’s hard to know their full intention as their operation failed. But judging from past form elsewhere, discrediting the investigation could well have been their motivation.” 
   
   One of the alleged agents, Serebriakov, was listed on a Moscow amateur football league website as a defender. “Our team is known as the ‘security services’ team. Almost everyone works for an intelligence agency,” a teammate told the Moscow Times. “I personally don’t.” 
   
   Facebook Twitter Pinterest A picture believed to show one of the men at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Photograph: Netherlands defence ministry 
   
   British officials refused to say whether the Russian agents would have been detained if they had been caught undertaking the same activity in the UK, stressing operational decisions were for Dutch authorities. 
   
   Asked if the UK undertook the same surveillance methods as Moscow, they added: “British intelligence cannot be put in the same moral and ethical bucket as the Russian security service. They do not have oversight.” 
   
   Play Video 0:51 Novichok attackers were Russian military intelligence, says May – video 
   
   On Thursday Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “The evidence is clearly against Russia on both the Salisbury attack and of course on the latest cyber-attacks so there has to be a confrontation, a diplomatic confrontation, with Russia on this.” 
   
   The revelations came hours after the British government directly accused Russian military intelligence of being behind a spate of “reckless and indiscriminate cyber-attacks” carried out on the orders of the Kremlin, including the hacking in 2016 of the US Democratic National Committee headquarters. 
   
   A joint statement by Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker, the presidents of the European council and European commission respectively, along with the EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said: “We deplore such actions, which undermine international law and international institutions. 
   
   “The EU will continue to strengthen the resilience of its institutions and those of its member states, and international partners and organisations in the digital domain.” ||||| The Dutch government said Thursday that it blocked a cyberattack by Russian intelligence agents in April targeting the global chemical weapons watchdog agency. The head of the Netherland's military intelligence agency identified four Russians behind the alleged operation, which targeted the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) headquarters in The Hague. 
   
   Dutch officials showed images of a rental vehicle they said was discovered at the time with computer equipment and transformers used in the alleged plot. He said the Russians were expelled from the Netherlands immediately after the plot was foiled on April 13. 
   
   Later Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced charges against seven Russian agents for cyber crimes linked to the Dutch investigation. The indictment accused the seven members of Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU, of hacking into the world anti-doping agency, the OPCW, and of cyberattacks aimed at a U.S. nuclear energy facility. 
   
   An image released on Oct. 4, 2018 by the Netherlands Defense Ministry shows a vehicle seized near the OPCW headquarters in The Hague, containing equipment allegedly used by Russian GRU military intelligence agents in a plot to hack the chemical weapons watchdog agency in April 2018. HANDOUT 
   
   "The conspiracy conducted persistent and sophisticated computer intrusions affecting U.S. persons, corporate entities, international organizations, and their respective employees located around the world, based on their strategic interest to the Russian government," the Department of Justice said in a statement. 
   
   The revelation of the plot in the Netherlands came just hours after Britain's Defense Minister Gavin Williamson, at a NATO summit with U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and other allies, called Russia's cyberattacks of recent years the "actions of a pariah state," and vowed that NATO would "be exposing" Moscow's nefarious acts. 
   
   NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned Russia, not long after the announcement by the Netherlands, to halt its "reckless" behavior. "Russia must stop its reckless pattern of behaviour, including the use of force against its neighbours, attempted interference in election processes, and widespread disinformation campaigns," he said in Brussels. 
   
   "Basically the Russians got caught with their equipment, people who were doing it, and they have got to pay the piper, they are going to have be held to account," Mattis said later Thursday at the NATO summit. "How we respond to something like this is a political decision by the nations involved, and we will be standing by them. But it does not necessarily equate to some kind of tit for tat on cyber. We have a wide variety among our nations of responses available to us." 
   
   Mattis lambasted Russia for the alleged attack on the OPCW, calling it, "the latest of a world-wide pattern of reckless and irresponsible behavior from Moscow." 
   
   #NATO stands in solidarity with the Dutch & UK governments in calling out #Russia on its cyber attacks against @OPCW & others. Russia must stop its reckless pattern of behaviour to undermine international law & institutions. NATO Allies work together to bolster our cyber defences pic.twitter.com/8dPHcRBdYy — Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg) October 4, 2018 
   
   In Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued what has now become a familiar denial of all allegations. Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the latest charges against Russia "big fantasies." And at United Nations headquarters in New York, Russia's deputy ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy ridiculed Britain over the allegations, calling them "Russiaphobic." His tweet did not address the specific allegations against Russia's military intelligence agency. 
   
   A new episode of #UK Pathetic “highly likely” Russophobic Series, this time staged in #Netherlands - on news wires every 4th day of the month! Next to come: Russia hacked Mrs May’s brain and stole #Brexit plan or rather hacked the referendum itself! #opcw https://t.co/tg1HwXXbK0 — Dmitry Polyanskiy (@Dpol_un) October 4, 2018 
   
   
   
   British Ambassador to the Netherlands Peter Wilson said the plot against the OPCW showed "complete disregard" by Russia for the agency's mission to investigate illegal chemical weapons attacks around the world. He noted that the plot was disrupted in April as the OPCW worked to confirm Britain's allegations that GRU agents attempted to murder Russian ex-double agent Sergei Skripal in England, and to confirm an alleged chemical attack by Syria's Russian-backed military in Douma, Syria. 
   
   "The disruption of this attempted attack on the OPCW was down to the expertise and the professionalism of the Dutch security services in partnership with the United Kingdom," Wilson said. "The OPCW is a respected international organization which is working to rid the world of chemical weapons. Hostile action against it demonstrates complete disregard for this vital mission." 
   
   Inside Douma, the site of apparent Syrian chemical attack 
   
   Dutch Defense Minister Ank Bijleveld-Schouten said the Russian intelligence officers had also targeted the Netherlands-based investigation into the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine. 
   
   "We have been aware of the interest of Russian intelligence services in this investigation and have taken appropriate measures." she said. "We remain very alert about this." 
   
   Bijleveld-Schouten said the Russian Ambassador to the Netherlands was summoned on Thursday to the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be reprimanded for Moscow's "unacceptable" behavior. 
   
   Ambassador Wilson said the plot in The Hague was not an isolated incident, accusing the same Russian military intelligence unit behind the thwarted plot of sending operatives around the world to carryout other, "brazen, close-access cyber operations." 
   
   How hackers could target a city's critical infrastructure on Election Day 
   
   Britain and the Netherlands would be "stepping up our combined activity against" the GRU, Wilson said. "We will shine a light on their activities. We will expose their methods, and we will share this with our allies." 
   
   He said increased sanctions against Russia would be sought in retaliation for Moscow's "malign activity." 
   
   British Prime Minister Theresa May and her Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte released a joint statement vowing to "defend international institutions from those that seek do to them harm," and condemning the Russian military for its "disregard for the global values and rules that keep us all safe." 
   
   In London, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt called the Russian military's plot against the OPCW "part of a sustained pattern of hostile cyberspace activity," and vowed that Moscow would face "consequences."
target: – A stunning allegation out of the Netherlands: The defense minister said Thursday the country had previously kicked out four Russians, believed to be GRU military intelligence officers, who were planning a cyber attack on the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in the Hague. The global chemical weapons watchdog has been testing the nerve agent used to poison the Skripals in the UK. CBS News reports the four suspects, which included an IT expert, were caught "in flagrante" on April 13 and immediately removed from the country. The men were allegedly trying to hack into the OPCW via its WiFi network, reports the Guardian, supposedly after a spear-phishing attack launched from Russia failed. The trunk of their rental car, which was parked outside the OPCW's HQ, reportedly contained computer equipment designed to intercept log-ins. One of the men allegedly tried to trash his cell phone upon being confronted by authorities, reports the BBC, but officials say plenty of damning evidence was recovered, including an antenna concealed under a coat and a taxi receipt for a trip from a street near the GRU's Moscow location to the airport. British ambassador to the Netherlands Peter Wilson, who was present for the announcement, said a seized laptop's history indicated it was part of previous hacks: in Malaysia in association with the investigation into the downing of flight MH-17 over the Ukraine in 2014, and in Lausanne, Switzerland, in connection with the World Anti-Doping Agency, which has investigated doping by Russian athletes. Wilson's take: that the GRU was trying to "clean up Russia's own mess." Russia's take, per a foreign ministry rep quoted by the Guardian: "big fantasies."