The Kremlin on Monday dismissed as “unfounded” reports of a secret CIA assessment that Russia tried to tip the US presidential poll in Donald Trump’s favour by hacking political institutions.
“Not one of these absolutely baseless allegations is supported by any kind of information, let alone evidence,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“This all looks like absolutely unfounded, unprofessional, amateur accusations that have nothing to do with reality.”
According to a report in The Washington Post last week, the CIA believes that Russian cyber attacks against the US were aimed at helping the Republican candidate win the White House.
The report came on the heels of President Barack Obama’s order to review all cyberattacks that took place during the 2016 election cycle amid growing calls from Congress for more information on the extent of Russian interference in the election campaign.
Republicans at the weekend dismissed the reports, with National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer saying “the intelligence is wrong.”
Trump himself dismissed the reports as “ridiculous.”
The Kremlin was propelled to the heart of American politics in July after Hillary Clinton’s campaign blamed Russia for an embarrassing leak of emails from the Democratic National Committee.
Washington in October formally accused the Russian government of trying to “interfere” in the elections by hacking the Democrats behind Clinton, charges the Kremlin has repeatedly dismissed.
President Vladimir Putin said in October that the accusations were meant to divert American voters’ attention away from domestic issues.
Source: AFP
