The Kremlin on Monday refuted accusations of
Russia’s involvement in hacker attacks during the
U.S. 2016 presidential election, saying that it was
a “tiresome witch-hunt.’’
“We continue to categorically rule out any
involvement of Moscow and Russian officials and
agencies in any hacker attacks,’’ Kremlin
Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
Earlier this month, the U.S. intelligence
community published the declassified part of the
report.
“Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in
Recent U.S. Elections,’’ claiming that “Russian
President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence
campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential
election.’’
The report said Moscow’s action aimed to
“undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic
process,’’ via Russian government agencies,
state-funded media, paid social media users as
well as hackers, in order to secure Donald
Trump’s victory in the presidential election.
Peskov said that the allegations in the U.S.
intelligence community publication had no proof
and had been prepared at an “amateur, emotional
level,’’ which was hardly applicable to the highly
professional work of high-quality security
services.
On Sunday, the Trump team said Trump had
accepted the U.S. intelligence community’s
findings that Russia was behind the cyber attacks
targeting the presidential election, accusations
that Trump had also repeatedly rebuffed.
But Trump has said that the alleged hacking
activities have no impact on the election results
and he didn’t directly acknowledge Moscow’s
responsibility.
WikiLeaks has also rejected the intelligence
report that Russia passed on leaked information
to the whistle-blowing site as part of efforts to
influence the recent U.S. elections.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange dismissed a
report published on Friday by the CIA, FBI and
National Security Agency as “embarrassing’’ and
said it lacked evidence.
The report was an example of how “the U.S.
intelligence services have been politicised by the
Obama administration,’’ Assange said.
Assange said WikiLeaks was careful to protect its
sources, however, the information it published,
including emails and documents from the U.S.
Democratic Party and John Podesta , Head of
Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, were
from sources that “were not a state party.’’
“If our source were a state, we would have a lot
less concern in attempting to protect them,’’ he
said.
Assange urged current members in charge of U.S.
government computer servers to download and
protect materials that otherwise risked “mass
destruction’’ during the transition to the new
administration under Donald Trump.
“Our philosophy is that such information is a part
of history,’’ he said.
Assange also said he doubted that whistle-
blowers would be safe under a Trump
administration, and rejected claims that WikiLeaks
had refrained from publishing leaked information
from the Republican National Committee.
