A top Danish MP said Denmark should fire back and launch cyber-attacks against those who “attack” it, naming a “Russia linked group” as an example. His fellow politicians, however, were not that quick to join the call.

“We're hacking those who hack us,” the newly-elected president of the parliamentary Defense Committee, Naser Khader said. He insisted that authorities know who these hackers were and proposed to start with the Fancy Bear group right away.

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The latter has been repeatedly branded by Western politicians as having ties to Russian intelligence, or even being its operating unit.

While the “evidence” on any links remains elusive, the main argument of the accusers is that the group supposedly targets only states and institutions which the Russian government supposedly doesn’t like. For Khader – it seems – the Russian-Fancy Bears trace is a proven fact. “Everyone” knows there is a close connection between them and the Russian military intelligence service, he insisted.

Asked if this would mean an attack on Russia, the politician dodged a direct “YES.” He still said that it “would be a way to defend ourselves,” adding that “sometimes offense is the best defense.” Russia is not the only country that “threatens” Denmark, according to Khader.

China and North Korea are also on the list, so the Scandinavian state has to target more enemies simultaneously.

The ‘hacking offensive’ proposal raised some eyebrows among Khader’s colleagues. Danish People's Party defense spokesman Soren Espersen believes that it’s not up to Khader to advise the country’s intelligence service. “They are professionals, they know what this is all about…No good advice from us is needed,” Espersen said.

Such an offensive against another country would “be foolish” and won’t benefit Denmark, according to Social Democrats defense spokesman Henrik Dam Kristensen. “We cannot just go and start one big offensive in cyberspace,” he said.

READ MORE: 'Russian hackers' mania spreads: Germany joins accusations against Moscow

The “Bad Russians” narrative has gained pace this week after a barrage of accusations from the US and its NATO allies. It has been claimed that Moscow was behind a slew of malicious cyber-attacks around the world. The accusations were released almost simultaneously by the US, the UK, the Netherlands, and Canada – and included claims of Russia-linked attacks on the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Moscow slammed the case as another sign of Russophobia and pointed out that it has been nothing more but “a well-coordinated campaign to discredit Russia.”

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