Dutch government finds involvement of Russian intelligence operatives,says Ank Bijleveld

Dutch intelligence thwarted a Russian cyber attack targeting the global chemical weapons watchdog in April and expelled four Russian agents, the government said Thursday.

The Russians set up a car full of electronic equipment in the car park of a hotel next to the Organisation for the Prohibition for Chemical Weapons in The Hague in a bid to hack its computer system, it said.

"The Dutch government finds the involvement of these intelligence operatives extremely worrisome," Dutch Defence Minister Ank Bijleveld told a news conference.

"Normally we don't reveal this type of counter-intelligence operation."

The Netherlands publicly identified the alleged Russian agents and said the operation was carried out by Russia's GRU military intelligence agency, Dutch officials said.

Britain helped the Netherlands with the operation, they added.

A laptop belonging to one of the four was linked to Brazil, Switzerland and Malaysia. The activities in Malaysia were related to the investigation into the 2014 shooting down of flight MH17 over Ukraine, Bijleveld added.

(With inputs from agencies.)