President Barack Obama has finally accused Russia and President Putin of influencing the outcome of the last U.S. Elections through cyber attacks. He said America would respond to the attacks at a "time and place of our choosing".
Whenever a foreign government tried to interfere in US elections, the nation must take action - "and we will", Mr Obama told NPR News.
"Some of it may be explicit and publicised, some of it may not be," he said. "But Mr Putin is well aware of my feelings about this, because I spoke to him directly about it."
The outgoing US President promised to “take action” after senior US officials accused Putin of having a “personal involvement” in securing Donald Trump's victory.
US officials said they had a “high level of confidence” that Putin personally authorised the hacking of Democratic National Party email accounts and directed how the information was used, which moaning Democrats claim damaged Clinton’s campaign and helped Trump become the President-elect.
Russia completely denied all allegations and Putin’s spokesman dismissed the claims as “laughable nonsense”.
"At this point they need to either stop talking about this or finally present some sort of proof," Mr Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told journalists during a visit to Japan.
"Otherwise this looks extremely scurrilous."
It will be recalled that in October the Obama administration had officially accused Russia of attempting to interfere in the 2016 elections, including by hacking the computers of the Democratic National Committee and other political organizations.
The denunciation, made by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security, came as pressure was growing from within the administration and some lawmakers to publicly name Moscow and hold it accountable for actions apparently aimed at sowing discord around the election.
“The U.S. Intelligence Community is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from U.S. persons and institutions, including from U.S. political organizations,” said a joint statement from the two agencies. “. . . These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the U.S. election process.”
The public finger-pointing was welcomed by senior Democratic and Republican lawmakers, who also said they now expect the administration to move to punish the Kremlin as part of an effort to deter further acts by its hackers.
Rep. Adam B. Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, had urged the administration to work with European allies to develop a “concerted” response, whether it involves economic sanctions or other measures.
“The best way to push back,” Schiff said, “is in a truly international effort to let the Russians know there will be costs to this latest form of cyber-aggression against others.”
No comments:
Post a Comment
Your comments are priceless!