Obama refuses to rule out Russia bid to tip US vote
Kremlin denies interfering in US election campaign
AFP
AFP, WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama has refused to rule out the possibility that Russia is trying to sway the US presidential election in favor of Donald Trump.
Anything is possible, Obama told NBC News in an interview due to air Wednesdaythe furthest the US government has gone in pointing the finger at Russia for a vast release of Democratic National Committee emails by WikiLeaks.
Russia has dismissed the allegations it was involved as absurd.
Obama said the FBI continues to probe the leak, which showed apparent DNC bias toward Hillary Clinton over rival Bernie Sanders.
The leak was a howling embarrassment for the Democrats at their convention this week in Philadelphia. The Clinton campaign says cyber-experts it has hired have suggested Russia was to blame and its goal was to help the Republican presidential candidate Trump.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that US intelligence agencies now have high confidence that the Russian government was behind the theft of the emails.
But the agencies are not sure if the theft was intended as routine cyber espionage or part of a drive to influence the US presidential election, the Times said, quoting federal officials briefed on the matter.
Obama told NBC said he could not speak to the precise motive of the hack or subsequent leak but is aware of Trumps comments about Russia.
Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin, Obama said in an excerpt of the interview that will air in full on Wednesday.
And I think that Trumps gotten pretty favorable coverage back in Russia.
He added: What we do know is that the Russians hack our systems. Not just government systems, but private systems.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, speaking Tuesday on CNN, refused to confirm or deny that Russia was the source of the emails his organization leaked.
We like to create maximum ambiguity as to who our sources are, Assange said.
Perhaps one day the source or sources will step forward and that might be an interesting moment. Some people will have egg on their faces.
Security firm CrowdStrike revealed that when it responded in April to a suspected breach of DNC systems, the company identified two sophisticated adversaries whom it linked to Russian intelligence.
The Washington Post reported that the hackers stole data including a trove of opposition research on Trump.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin on Wednesday denied Moscow was interfering in the US election campaign after President Barack Obama refused to rule out that Russia could be trying to sway the vote in favour of Donald Trump.
President Putin has repeatedly said that Russia has never interfered and does not interfere in internal affairs, especially in the electoral processes of other countries, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters as he denied Russia was involved in a hack of Democratic National Committee emails.
Moscow has carefully avoided any actions, any words that could be interpreted as direct or indirect influence on the electoral process.
The Kremlin had already shrugged off accusations by the Hillary Clinton campaign that Russia was involved in the embarrassing leak of emails meant to help Republican presidential candidate Trump as absurd.
If you talk about some suspicions regarding our country, then you need at the very least to be precise and concrete, Peskov said Wednesday.
In an interview with NBC News set to air Wednesday, Obama said that anything was possible following suggestions that Russia could have been behind the hack.
Obama told NBC he could not speak about the precise motive for the hack or subsequent leak but was aware of Trumps positive comments about the Russian leadership. What we do know is that the Russians hack our systems. Not just government systems, but private systems, Obama said.
Trump has made no secret of his admiration for President Vladimir Putin, leading some to suggest the Kremlin strongman was working to help propel the real estate billionaire into the White House.
In December last year, Putin praised Trump as a very striking man, unquestionably talented.
Its not up to us to judge his virtues, that is up to US voters, but he is the absolute leader of the presidential race, Putin said.
Trump responded by hailing Putin as a strong leader, a powerful leader.
Peskov said Wednesday the Kremlin regretted that politicians in Washington were playing the Russian card, adding that it had become the main card of their game.
