 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 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 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." 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". 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 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. 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. 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 
 
 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Almost everyone works for an intelligence agency,” a teammate told the Moscow Times. 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.
– 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."