Russia probe: Putin hints at ‘private hackers’
WASHINGTON: After having denied any Russian interference in the 2016 US elections, President Vladimir Putin on Thursday hinted the involvement of “patriotic minded” private hackers from his country, but insisted his government had no role in it.
Putin’s admission marks a significant shift from his earlier position of categorically denying any Russian role in the alleged interference.
The Russian president said at a meeting with editors in St Petersburg that free-spirited hackers are like artists and they target whoever they like. “If they are patriotically minded, they start making their contributions — which are right, from their point of view — to the fight against those who say bad things about Russia,” he said.
But, one, he insisted the Russian government had nothing to do with the hacking — “we don’t engage in that at the state level” — and, two, he didn’t think hackers can influence elections anywhere in the world.
US intelligence has accused Russia of hacking computer networks of the Democratic National Committee and passing stolen data to WikiLeaks in an operation authorised by Putin to harm Hillary Clinton and help Trump win the race to the White House.
In a related move, US Senate officials have said former FBI chief James Comey on June 8 will publicly testify on his conversations with the president about the Russia probe.
UK’S NIGEL FARAGE A ‘PERSON OF INTEREST’
The Guardian reported UK politician Nigel Farage has emerged as a “person of interest” in the Russia probe for his links to people at the heart of it, such as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Trump campaign aides.
The Guardian was told by a source: “If you triangulate Russia, WikiLeaks, Assange and Trump associates, the person who comes up with the most hits is Nigel Farage. He’s right in the middle of these relationships. He turns up over and over again. There’s a lot of attention being paid to him.” HTC