Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov’s interview with Rossiya Segodnya on the third session of the Open-ended Working Group on security of and in the use of information and communications technologies 2021-2025

Question: What’s your take on the outcome of the third OEWG session? What is the main result?

Oleg Syromolotov: The event inspired certain optimism and was much more productive than the previous ones held in December and March. Back then, the United States and its allies attempted to thwart the talks. They wanted to raise the status of NGOs at the OEWG to full participants in the discussion on an equal footing with delegations representing nation states and threw a tantrum with regard to our special military operation in Ukraine.

This time, most of the Western delegations remained calm and heeded the calls to focus on the matters at hand such as developing specific steps to strengthen international information security, i.e., issues that affect all of humankind and are directly provided for by the OEWG mandate.

The adoption by the group of the first annual interim report can be called a success. It took a lot of effort to get there. The fact is that the countries of North America and Europe have traditionally insisted on enshrining their “rules-based order” in ICT instead of developing standards of international law that can take into account the specifics of these technologies. They promoted unsubstantiated accusations, trying to present Russia as the main threat to the cyber world.

Our diplomats managed to delete many harmful lines from the text that were designed to turn the OEWG into a Western policy tool and to uphold provisions aimed at expanding an international legal regime for regulating the information space, country-to-country cooperation in this area, and assisting the developing countries in strengthening their technological capabilities. We insisted on including Russia’s proposal to create a list of contact points for all UN member states in the OEWG report in order to establish feedback between the action agencies, to exchange information about computer incidents, and to overcome differences.

Question: The Russian delegation to the OEWG made clear that our country was joining the report with reservations. What are they about? Why was it necessary to make reservations amid a unanimous approach to the report?

Oleg Syromolotov: Despite the fact that much of the document is debatable and recognises the importance of continuing the talks, we are not satisfied with some of its provisions, in particular, the ones that can influence the course of discussions and predetermine future decisions.

One of the alarming stories is the Western countries’ plan to impose on everyone the reporting mechanisms for compliance with the norms of responsible state behaviour in cyberspace, which have not been agreed upon by the international community. The idea appears to be good, but clearly premature, because these rules are voluntary and non-binding. That is, there is no subject of reporting such as legally agreed obligations or agreements between the states.

In some paragraphs, the UN centrality in matters of providing IIS, which our country has invariably advocated, is called into question.

Finally, at our opponents’ suggestion, the report includes provisions that are unrelated to the group's mandate, such as gender equality issues.

Not all of Russia's concerns were taken into account. After long interagency meetings, we have nevertheless decided not to break the consensus. We believe it is important to keep working. We know that many of our partners in the developing world are counting on our support.

By the way, in an attempt to cut us off from the talks, the United States rudely denied visas to many members of the Russian delegation and its head, Special Presidential Envoy for International Cooperation in Information Security Andrey Krutskikh. Thus, Washington once again showed itself to be an extremely unreliable partner when it comes to fulfilling international obligations.

Question: What are the further prospects for the negotiating process within the OEWG?

Oleg Syromolotov: The group has almost four years of hard work under its mandate ahead. Ideally, we would like to get closer to agreeing upon an international treaty, a convention in the area of international information security. We will encourage our closest partners and opponents alike to adopt this idea. We plan to consolidate this goal during the upcoming UN General Assembly session.

Question: You mentioned that Western countries continue to accuse Russia of computer attacks. What evidence do they provide?

Oleg Syromolotov: None. Functionaries from Western countries are performing a political number. They need to find the culprit. The easiest and the most understandable thing for domestic consumers in North America and Europe is to claim that Russia is responsible for the troubles plaguing the information space.

Our delegation vehemently denied all accusations. Based on the facts, it noted that the United States and its allies are using ICT for offensive purposes. They also admit that they created an IT army of Ukraine to attack Russian infrastructure.

Russia again suggested using the established channels of interaction between the competent agencies to resolve any disagreements. Unlike our opponents, we regularly respond to such requests.