Vladimir Putin has featured prominently in the US Election. Accused of being the mastermind behind numerous hacks of the Democratic Party and its organizational infrastructure, Putin is highly suspect in a plan to disrupt the usual democratic process.
Addressing an economic forum in the Russian capital, Moscow, on Wednesday, Putin said that nothing in the reported cyber attacks aimed primarily at the Democratic National Committee was in the interest of Russia, adding that all sides in the US presidential race were “misusing anti-Russian rhetoric” for their own objectives.
“They started this hysteria, saying that this (hacking) is in Russia’s interests. But this has nothing to do with Russia’s interests,” Putin said.
“Everyone is talking about ‘who did it’ (the hacking),” said Putin, adding, “But is it that important? The most important thing is what is inside this information.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also dismissed the US allegations on Russia’s hacking of a range of its institutions.
“Everybody in the United States is saying that it is Russia which is running the (US) presidential election,” Lavrov said in an interview with CNN, noting, “We have not seen a single fact, a single proof.”
This came after the US government last week formally accused Russia of stealing and disclosing emails from the Democratic Party and a series of other institutions to influence the US presidential election in November.
In a joint statement on Friday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Election Security and the Department of Homeland Security accused “Russia’s most-senior officials” of authorizing the act.
They said some US states had detected attempts to breach their election systems, and claimed that most of the attempts had originated from servers operated by a Russian company.
Russia worried about worsening US ties
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Russian president said Moscow was worried about the worsening of its relations with Washington.
“There is a need to behave like partners and take each other’s interests into account,” Putin said, adding, “We are ready for that.”
He, however, stressed that it was hard to hold a dialogue with the current US administration as it prefers diktat to dialogue.
The relations between the US and Russia have been going in a downward spiral over a number of issues, including the war in Syria and the Ukrainian crisis.
French claims on Aleppo strikes ‘political rhetoric’
Meanwhile, in an interview with French television TF1 aired on Wednesday, the Russian leader rejected as senseless allegations made by France that Russia’s bombing campaign against Takfiri targets in Syria amounts to war crimes.
“It’s political rhetoric that doesn’t make a lot of sense and doesn’t take account of the reality in Syria,” Putin said.
“I am deeply convinced that it’s our Western partners, and especially the United States, that are responsible for the situation in the region in general and Syria in particular,” he added.
Russia has been conducting airstrikes against Takfiri militants in Syria at the request of the Damascus government since September 2015.
Since 2014, the United States, along with a number of its allies, has been leading a so-called anti-terror campaign in Syria and neighboring Iraq.
Instead of helping to rein in the Takfiri terrorists, the air raids have killed many civilians, and caused extensive damage to the country’s infrastructure.
On September 17, a Syrian army airbase in Dayr al-Zawr came under attack by US-led warplanes in violation of a nationwide ceasefire deal, which had been mediated by Russia and the US.
More than 80 Syrian soldiers lost their lives and some 100 others were wounded in the US-led airstrikes, which helped Daesh terrorists make some gains in the area.
