Russia’s US poll trolling evidence ‘incontrovertible’
MUNICH: President Donald Trump’s national security adviser said on Saturday (German time) that the United States indictment against Russian nationals showed ‘‘incontrovertible’’ evidence of cyberattacks, a rebuff to Vladimir Putin’s foreign minister who dismissed the allegations as ‘‘blather’’.
H.R. McMaster told an audience at the Munich Security Conference that Russia engaged in a ‘‘sophisticated form of espionage’’ against the US in a futile attempt at disruption.
He referred the indictment against 13 Russian nationals and a St Petersburgbased ‘‘troll farm’’, accused of seeking to interfere in the US presidential election in 2016.
‘‘The evidence is now really incontrovertible and available in the public domain, whereas in the past it was difficult to attribute,’’ McMaster said on a panel. Russian attempts to influence politics in the US and elsewhere are ‘‘just not working’’, he said.
The federal indictment alleged a widespread and coordinated effort to influence the 2016 election in Trump’s favour. It alleged that the operation was funded by companies controlled by a Russian businessman close to the Kremlin.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who went on stage in Munich just before McMaster, gave short shrift to the allegations.
‘‘Until we see the facts, everything else is blather,’’ Lavrov said.
Lavrov cited comments by Vicepresident Mike Pence and Jeanette Manfra, an official in the US Department of Homeland Security.
Manfra said last Monday that ‘‘we have no evidence— old or new — that any votes in the 2016 elections were manipulated by Russian hackers’’, according to a statement by the department.
Pence told Axios news last week ‘‘there were efforts by Russia’’ to affect the election, but that it didn’t work. Americans ‘‘can be confident’’ in the 2016 result, Pence said.
McMaster was asked by Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the foreign affairs committee of the Russian upper house of parliament, whether he would agree to Russian requests for a dialogue on cybersecurity matters.
‘‘I’m surprised there are Russian cyber experts available,’’ McMaster responded, ‘‘based on how active most of them have been in undermining our democracies in the West.’’
Kosachyov portrayed the indictment as an attack on Trump by his foes and said he expected pressure on Russia to increase as the investigation moved forward.
‘‘This will escalate as there’s no way back for them,’’ Kosachyov said. ‘‘This isn’t an attack on Russia, it’s an attack on Trump.’’