Biden to Bring Up Russian Hackers Issue With Putin

President Joe Biden said Thursday that Vladimir Putin was not connected to a Russia-based criminal cyber attack on a huge US fuel pipeline but that he will raise the issue at an expected summit.

Washington believes a criminal group based in Russia targeted the Colonial pipeline, which delivers gasoline through much of the south eastern United States, with ransomware.

Asked if Putin or the Russian government were aware of the attack, Biden paused, then said: “I am confident that I read the report of the FBI accurately and they say they were not, he was not, the government was not.”

“We do not believe — I emphasize — that the Russian government was involved in this attack. But we do have strong reason to believe that the criminals who did the attack are living in Russia. That’s where it came from,” he said.

Biden said his administration has been in “direct communication with Russia” and that international standards are needed to toughen control over such criminal groups.

“I suspect that’s one of the topics I’ll be talking about with President Putin,” Biden said.

He is expected to meet Putin for the first time since becoming president during a visit to Europe in June.

Related: Biden Signs Order to Beef Up Federal Cyber Defenses