The distinction probably matters to a lot of people at the scale that Microsoft is operating at. They likely worked with some sort of MS US government liaison on the wording.
Operating with tacit approval is not the same as being a government entity. Even you admit there is a small chance that this group is not tacitly approved ("for long"). I mean yeah, we all know the score, but a it's really bad idea to levy heavy charges without knowing the answer 100%.
This statement does pretty heavily implicate the Russian Govt though, yeah :)
This group is also known as CozyBear, if that rings a bell. The US government named them years ago in an announcement kicking out several Russian diplomats. I don’t think anyone is worried about being wrong on this.
Operating with tacit approval is not the same as being a government entity. Even you admit there is a small chance that this group is not tacitly approved ("for long"). I mean yeah, we all know the score, but a it's really bad idea to levy heavy charges without knowing the answer 100%.
This statement does pretty heavily implicate the Russian Govt though, yeah :)