Conti Russian ransomware gang threatens countries that punish Moscow for Ukraine

This would seem to put to rest any questions over the closeness of the relationship between some ransomware groups & the Russian government.

It certainly makes the timing suspect this past Spring when Russia started massing troops near Ukraine in April [0] and there was the Colonial ransomware not long afterward. It is hard not to think of those two events as links in the same chain of actions we're seeing now.

[0] https://www.csis.org/analysis/russian-and-ukrainian-spring-2...