Russia announced that it worked to stop approximately 25 million cyber-attacks throughout the course of the World Cup. President Putin stated in his public announcement that all of those attacks were targeting the World Cup or infrastructure directly tied to the World Cup. He went on to say that Russia’s success in their defense came from “huge preparatory, operational, analytical and information work,” and that Russian security forces “operated at maximum capacity and concentration.” No blame has been placed on anyone for these attacks, nor have any accusation been made, though Russia has never been shy about blaming the west. The timing of the end of the World Cup is beneficial for Russia with the meeting between President Putin and President Trump taking place today in Helsinki. This announcement will help President Putin in several ways. It allows him to tout the strength of Russian information security forces, as well as play the victim and show that they have a right to act in self-defense while the rest of the world demonizes them. This, coupled with the announcements over the weekend about further evidence of Russian involvement in the tampering with the U.S. elections in 2016 will make discussions between President Putin and President Trump difficult.
