A Russian news agency says Moscow and the U.S. are discussing creating a joint cybersecurity working group, according to a Russian official.
Andrey Krutskikh, a special presidential envoy on cybersecurity for the Kremlin, told Russia’s RIA news agency on Thursday that proposals for a working group are being debated.
“The talks are underway … Different proposals are being exchanged; nobody denies the necessity of holding the talks and of having such contacts,” Krutskikh said.
Svetlana Lukash, a Russian official who was at the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, earlier this month, said that Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Trump had agreed to discuss cybersecurity initiatives, potentially as part of a working group.
Intelligence and security officials in the U.S. told Reuters, however, that they were not participating in the talks.
One of the officials said a partnership with Russia on cybersecurity was a “pipe dream” as Moscow continues to deny that it interfered in last year’s U.S. presidential election, as multiple American intelligence agencies have confirmed.
Trump himself said after the G-20 summit that he had discussed the idea of creating such a cybersecurity working group with Putin during their bilateral meeting there.
But after Democrats and Republicans criticized the idea, Trump seemed to take it back.
“The fact that President Putin and I discussed a Cyber Security unit doesn’t mean I think it can happen,” Trump tweeted. “It can’t.”
