Latvian minister: Understanding Russian cyberattacks ‘essential’

Latvia’s foreign minister urged the United States ramp up its focus on Russian election interference tactics during a London meeting this week of Nordic and Baltic leaders this week, The Guardian reported.

“It is essential for all U.S. allies to understand the mechanics of how you combine cyber attack and then use it as [an] information weapon to influence people’s opinions,” Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs said during a plea for Congress to redouble its investigations into Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election.

{mosads}Rinkēvičs pointed to NATO research about influence campaigns in Latvia and Estonia showing Russian-language tweets expressing anti-NATO sentiment in the two countries were respectively five- and nine-times more likely to come from bots. 

“The whole law in this area needs addressing,” he said. 

The Nordic-Baltic meet in London was scheduled by United Kingdom Foreign Minister Boris Johnson, who denied reports the true purpose of the forum was to shore up support for the U.K. with some of its most supportive European Union allies amid negotiations over Britain’s exit from the EU.