Britain and Australia on Thursday accused Russian military intelligence of conducting a campaign of cyber attacks targeting political institutions, businesses, media and sport bodies around the world.
Operatives from Russia's GRU arm carried out various "reckless and indiscriminate" high-profile online attacks, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said in a statement.
Many have been previously linked to Moscow, including the 2017 "BadRabbit" ransomware targeting of a Ukrainian international airport and Russian media outlets, and the attempted hacking of the World Anti-Doping Agency in Switzerland, also last year.
"This pattern of behaviour demonstrates (the GRU's) desire to operate without regard to international law or established norms and to do so with a feeling of impunity and without consequences," Hunt said.
"Our message is clear: together with our allies, we will expose and respond to the GRU's attempts to undermine international stability."
Britain's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) named the GRU operatives as the perpetrators, according to the Foreign Office.
The NCSC has "high confidence" that the GRU was "almost certainly" responsible for the 2017 attacks, as well as others including the infamous targeting of the US Democratic Party ahead of the 2016 presidential election, Whitehall sources said.