Putin won’t strike back
Vladimir Putin said Friday he would not retaliate for President Obama’s expulsion of 35 spies over Russia’s cyberattacks in the US election — a move Donald Trump hailed on Twitter.
“Reserving our right to respond, we will not stoop to a ‘kitchen’ level of irresponsible diplomacy, and we will take further steps to rebuild Russian-American relations based on the policy carried out by the administration of President Donald Trump,” Putin said.
Trump, who has dismissed the US intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia was behind hacks into the Democratic National Committee, praised the Russian strongman hours later.
“Great move on delay (by V. Putin) - I always knew he was very smart!” he wrote.
Analysts said Putin’s non-response was a signal he doesn’t feel he needs to bother with President Obama anymore.
“Putin’s reaction to sanctions effectively communicates he feels Obama’s done, can be ignored and that Trump [is] already making US foreign policy,” David Rothkopf, editor-inchief of Foreign Policy magazine, wrote on Twitter.
Putin overruled some of his own top advisers, who had urged him to take tit-for-tat action against the US in retaliation for Obama’s expulsions and for hitting Russia’s intelli- gence service and some private firms with sanctions.
“The Russian diplomats returning home will spend the New Year holidays with their relatives and dear ones,” Putin said. “We will not create problems for US diplomats.”
But the Russian ruler did slam Obama for a “provocation aimed at further undermining Russian-American relations.”
Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported that a code used by the Russian hackers who interfered in the 2016 presidential election infiltrated a Vermont utility company using the same code.
The Russian hackers penetrated the utility’s computers but did not disrupt the electrical system, authorities said.