Russia has offered sympathy to North Korea amid the Sony hacking scandal and the release of the controversial comedy The Interview saying that the film was "aggressive and scandalous".
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said that North Korea's reaction to the movie was "understandable", reported Fox News.
Lukashevich said that the U.S. threats of retaliation were "counterproductive" and that America had failed to offer any evidence to back its claim of Pyongyang's involvement in the hacking.
The Interview has finally opened in independent U.S. cinemas and online on Christmas Day.
The movie is a comedy depicting a fictional plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Pyongyang has denied hacking charges against it in the Sony Pictures issue, but also praised it as a "righteous deed.