NHS cyber attack: US to blame for devastating attack on hospitals, Vladimir Putin says

'The initial source of the virus is the intelligence services of the United States'

(Lintao Zhang/Pool/Getty Images)

Vladimir Putin has suggested that the US is to blame for the cyber attack that cause chaos in the NHS and across the world.

Cautioning of the dangers of intelligence agencies creating malware that can later be used by hackers, he suggested that the American NSA were partly responsible for aiding the recent attack by creating the hacking tool used.

Speaking to reporters in Beijing during a conference, the Russian president said that there had been little damage done to institutions in his country.

"But as a whole it is worrying, there's nothing good about it, it is a source of concern. As regards the source of these threats, I believe that the leadership of Microsoft have announced this plainly, that the initial source of the virus is the intelligence services of the United States," Putin said.

"Once they're let out of the lamp, genies of this kind, especially those created by intelligence services, can later do damage to their authors and creators," he added.

"So this question should be discussed immediately on a serious political level and a defence needs to be worked out from such phenomena."

He denied that Russia had anything to do with the attack.