Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia had nothing to do with the Democratic National Committee email hack, but also suggested it wasn’t such a bad thing. On Friday, Bloomberg interviewed Putin earlier in the week, with the Russian leader stating he believes the hack was good in the long run as it provided much-needed information to the American public.
The hack, believed to be conducted by Russian-backed hackers, resulted in WikiLeaks publishing approximately 20,000 private emails from the Democratic National Committee in the days ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Many reports are also claiming the hack may have been worse than originally thought. A number of people have felt the ramifications of the DNC hack to this point and officials have been quick to point the blame at Russia. Putin and the Russian government have continuously denied any involvement in the theft, but recent comments have some scratching their heads at this assertion. In an interview on Thursday, Bloomberg reports the Russian president didn’t see what the big deal was about the whole thing:
“Listen, does it even matter who hacked this data? The important thing is the content that was given to the public…There’s no need to distract the public’s attention from the essence of the problem by raising some minor issues connected with the search for who did it. But I want to tell you again, I don’t know anything about it, and on a state level Russia has never done this.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has said it is pretty confident the Russian government had some sort of hand in the act. Some have speculated that Russia orchestrated it in order to propel Donald Trump to the presidency. It’s an interesting conspiracy as Trump and Putin have made not been shy about their affinity for one another. Some are not pleased with Putin’s cavalier attitude about the situation with Clinton spokesman Jesse Lehrich calling this an issue of national security:
“Unsurprisingly, Putin has joined Trump in cheering foreign interference in the U.S. election that is clearly designed to inflict political damage on Hillary Clinton and Democrats. This is a national security issue and every American deserves answers about potential collusion between Trump campaign associates and the Kremlin.”
Putin went on to say that hacking has become so sophisticated these days, it would be difficult to determine who actually did it. Putin’s comments are just the latest installment in the tense relationship between the U.S. and Russia. The two have been at odds over this issue and it doesn’t look to be calming down anytime soon.
(Via Bloomberg)