Russia's ambassador to the UK has rejected allegations that his country's intelligence services tried to steal coronavirus vaccine research.

"I don't believe in this story at all, there is no sense in it," Andrei Kelin told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.

On Thursday, UK security services said hackers targeting vaccine developers "almost certainly" operated as "part of Russian intelligence services".

Mr Kelin also rejected suggestions that Russia had interfered in UK politics.

Earlier this week, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Russians almost certainly sought to interfere in the 2019 UK election through illicitly-acquired documents.

The papers, which emerged online, detailed UK-US trade discussions and were used by Labour in its election campaign.

"I do not see any point in using this subject as a matter of interference," Mr Kelin said.

"We do not interfere at all. We do not see any point in interference because for us, whether it will be [the] Conservative Party or Labour's party at the head of this country, we will try to settle relations and to establish better relations than now."

The interview comes days before a report into allegations of wider Russian interference into UK democracy is due to be published by Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee.

On Thursday, UK, US and Canada security services said a hacking group called APT29 had targeted various organizations involved in Covid-19 vaccine development, with the likely intention of stealing information.

The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said it was more than 95% certain that the group, also known as The Dukes or Cozy Bear, was part of Russian intelligence services.

Asked whether that was true, Kelin did not directly answer, but said: "I learned about their existence from British media."

"In this world, to attribute any kind of computer hackers to any country, it is impossible," he said.

Kelin went on to dismiss a suggestion that it would be an "advantage" for Russia to know about vaccines in development. He said Russian pharmaceutical company R-Pharm had already entered a partnership with Astra Zeneca to manufacture the coronavirus vaccine being developed at the University of Oxford, should it prove effective.

Source: BBC