Russian spy chief denies SVR was behind Solarwinds cyber attack - BBC

LONDON, May 18 (Reuters) - Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) chief denied on Tuesday that his agency was behind the SolarWinds cyber attack, which led to the compromise of nine U.S. federal agencies and hundreds of private sector companies.

The United States and Britain have both blamed SVR for the attack on SolarWinds.

"The claims are like a bad detective novel," SVR Director Sergei Naryshkin, a close ally of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, told the BBC in Russian.

Asked by the BBC if the SVR was responsible for the SolarWinds attack, Naryshkin quipped that he would be "flattered" if the SVR had been responsible for such an attack but that he could not "claim the creative achievements of others as his own."

Naryshkin suggested that the tactics of the attack were similar to those used by U.S. and British intelligence agencies. (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Kim Coghill)