After several attacks on Russia’s Vladimir Putin, a
retaliatory attack has been made by Russians against the United States for
saying that Putin was directly part of cyber-attacks fashioned to alter the
result of the just concluded US election which elected Donal Trump.
"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."
His counter-claim came after President Barack Obama 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."
Accordingly, it was suggested on Thursday that the Obama’s government
made a suggestion saying President Putin personally authorised the hacking of
Democratic officials' email accounts in the run-up to the election and said it
was "fact" that such actions helped Donald Trump's campaign.
The information on Mr Putin's alleged involvement apparently
came from spies and diplomatic sources.
On the contrary, Russia has denied state-sponsored hacking
to tip the balance towards Mr Trump, who is seen as more pro-Russia than his
Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
Mr Putin's spokesman previously dismissed the latest claims
as "laughable nonsense".
Recall that in October, the US government officially accused
Russia of cyberattacks and President Obama last week ordered a review by
intelligence agencies, set to be completed before he leaves office on 20
January.
The Washington Post reported that the CIA believes
individuals linked to Moscow fed WikiLeaks emails from Mrs Clinton's campaign
chief and the Democratic National Committee.
Those emails were steadily released in the months before the
election and damaged Mrs Clinton's campaign.
In his statement, Mr Trump called the claims
"ridiculous" but Mr Obama's spokesman Josh Earnest said it was
"obvious" Mr Trump knew he was being helped by the Russians.
Mr Obama's top adviser, Ben Rhodes, also waded in, telling
MSNBC: "I don't think things happen in the Russian government of this
consequence without Vladimir Putin knowing about it.
"Everything we know about how Russia operates and how
Putin controls that government would suggest that, again, when you're talking
about a significant cyber intrusion like this, we're talking about the highest
levels of government."
It is the first time officials have publicly pointed the
finger at Mr Putin and it will inevitably ramp up tensions between Moscow and
President Obama's outgoing administration.
But Sky News Technology Correspondent Tom Cheshire stated
that hacking was being done by many countries, including the UK, US and China.
He said: "It's part of modern day espionage. We know
this has been happening in the UK. GCHQ foiled a cyberattack in the last
election.
"The problem is that if the US says how it got the
evidence it would reveal where it found it in the network and it gets kicked
out. They are going as far as they can and saying, trust us on this, it's
Russia. But they may be forced to actually reveal their hand a bit more to put
this to rest."
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