Putin dismisses US threat of retaliation over alleged hacking

Vladimir Putin on Sunday shrugged off new US threats to retaliate against alleged Russian hackers, saying such statements only confirmed that Washington used cyber-attacks for political ends.

Speaking after a summit of developing economies in India, the Russian president also said he believed that the hacking allegations were mainly election campaign rhetoric by the White House, and that he hoped bilateral ties could improve after the US elections.

Vice-president Joe Biden told NBC on Friday “we are sending a message” to Putin, and said retaliation for Russia’s hacking attacks “will be at the time of our choosing, and under the circumstances that will have the greatest impact”.

The US government this month formally accused Russia for the first time of a campaign of cyber-attacks against Democratic party organizations ahead of the 8 November presidential election.

“You can expect anything from our American friends. But what did he say that was new? Don’t we know that official bodies of the United States are spying and eavesdropping on everyone?” Putin told reporters after the summit of leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

“The only new thing is that for the first time the United States has recognised at the highest level … that they themselves do it [cyber-attacks].”

Putin said that by “playing the Russian card” in the current election campaign, the outgoing US administration sought to distract voter attention from its failures, which include huge state debt, weak diplomacy in the Middle East and strained relations with its allies in that region.

“I would like to reassure everyone, including our US partners and friends – we do not intend to influence the US election campaign,” he said.

On Thursday, Russia’s foreign ministry accused the Obama administration of destroying bilateral relations in the run-up to the elections, saying that “the level of Russophobic propaganda coming from the very top is now starting to go off the scale”.

But Putin said he would work with any US leader willing to work with Russia.

“If someone wants confrontation, this is not our choice,” he said. “On the contrary, we would like to find common ground and cooperate in solving the global problems that confront both Russia and the United States.“

Hillary Clinton’s running mate, senator Tim Kaine, said on Sunday that “there does need to be a consequence” for such hacks.

“There will be time for figuring what that consequence is. But you can’t let it go unchallenged because if you do, you just could encourage more of it,” he told CBS. “I don’t think it’s funny when you have a nation like Russia that has engaged in activity to destabilize elections in countries – Ukraine, Estonia, they’ve engaged in that activity.
 

“And somebody running to be president of the United States shouldn’t be encouraging another nation to cyber-hack the US,” he added, alluding to a remark made this summer by the Republican nominee, Donald Trump.

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said in July, in what his campaign later called a joke. Trump has called for a full restoration of US-Russian relations, and spoken approvingly of Putin as a “strong leader”.

“Here’s something that we do have to just state very plainly,” Kaine said. “Not only are these emails an effort by WikiLeaks in Russia to try to destabilize our election, but second, you can’t assume that they’re all accurate. One of the emails that came up this week referred to me. It was completely inaccurate.”

Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, has broken with the nominee on Russia. On Sunday he agreed with Kaine that the culprits for the hack should pay a price. “There’s more and more evidence that implicates Russia,” he told NBC. “And there should be serious consequences”