FxWirePro: Daily Commodity Tracker - 21st March, 2022 
Gold Prices Fall Amid Rate Jitters; Copper Steady as China Stimulus Eyed 
Netherlands in saying that it has foiled a Russian cyber-attack on chemicals weapons watchdog, Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), just a day after Russia President Vladimir Putin described Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy who worked as a double agent for the United Kingdom and was allegedly poisoned by Russia last year using nerve agent Novichok, as a scumbag and traitor. OPCW has been investigating the case. In response to that attacks, many countries expelled hundreds of Russian diplomats from their respective countries at the request of the United Kingdom and as a rebuke to Russia for using the nerve agent. Russia had denied any involvement.
If this new allegations prove to be true, expect further expulsion of diplomats and more importantly further sanctions on Russia.
Dutch defense minister Ank Bijleveld said that four men working for Russia’s GRU (military intelligence agency) were caught trying to hack into the computer network at the OPCW’s headquarters in the Hague from a car parked at a nearby hotel in April. Laptops belonging to the men, which were seized by the Dutch security services, allegedly showed they were involved in cyber operations in Switzerland, Malaysia and Brazil. They were each carrying $20,000 when they were arrested, authorities said. The alleged attack on the OPCW in The Hague came as the watchdog was conducting tests to verify the nerve agent used to attack the former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in March. According to the Dutch authorities, the four intelligence officers entered the Netherlands via Schiphol Airport using diplomatic passports. They subsequently hired a car which they positioned in the parking lot of the Marriott Hotel, adjacent to the OPCW office.
It is not clear, why this information is being released now but it coincides with last month’s release of CCTV footage by the United Kingdom showing two Russian men, who allegedly poisoned Sergei Skripal.
