Dutch authorities accuse Russia of targeting OPCW, MH17 investigation

Dutch security services expelled four Russian military intelligence officers from the Netherlands in connection with the plot, Dutch Defense Minister Ank Bijleveld-Schouten told a news conference.

Describing the Russian operation as "very worrying," Bijleveld-Schouten said the four men were expelled on April 13, the same day the plot was detected.

They left belongings behind, she said, enabling the Dutch to discover that one of the agents' laptops had made connections to Brazil, Switzerland and Malaysia, trying to interfere with the investigation into the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

The head of the Netherlands' Defense Intelligence and Security Service, Maj. Gen. Onno Eichelsheim, named the four alleged officers as Aleksei Morenets and Evgenii Serebriakov -- who had very similar passport numbers, he said -- Oleg Sotnikov and Alexey Minin.

Earlier Thursday, Britain, Australia and New Zealand accused Russian military intelligence of carrying out a worldwide campaign of "malicious" cyber attacks, including the hacking of the US Democratic National Committee in 2016.

Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia Skripal, are pictured at a restaurant in Salisbury.

Britain has also blamed the GRU for the poisoning of Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a military-grade nerve agent in the English city of Salisbury on March 4.

UK investigators have also formally linked the attack on the Skripals to the June 30 poisoning of Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley, a couple living in Amesbury, near Salisbury. Sturgess died on July 8 after applying a substance to her wrists from a perfume bottle found by Rowley.

The Kremlin has consistently dismissed official British allegations.

In early September, British authorities released the names "Ruslan Boshirov" and "Alexander Petrov" as the suspects in the poisonings. Prime Minister Theresa May and British authorities believe the men were traveling under aliases.

In response, Putin described the two suspects as "civilians." He said Russia had identified the pair and found no evidence of criminal activities.

In an interview broadcast on the Kremlin-backed RT network, the two men admitted visiting Salisbury but denied carrying out the Novichok poisoning, saying that the purpose of their brief trip was to visit the city's historic landmarks.

UK investigative website Bellingcat last week claimed to have identified one of the two suspects as a highly decorated officer in the Russian military. Moscow denied the Bellingcat report, describing the allegation as "bogus."

CNN's Richard Allen Greene and Katie Polglase contributed to this report.

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