Maybe Private Russian Hackers Meddled in Election, Putin Says
Source: NY Times
MOSCOW Shifting from his previous blanket denials, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia suggested on Thursday that patriotically minded private Russian hackers could have been involved in cyberattacks last year that meddled in the United States presidential election.
While Mr. Putin continued to deny any state role in the hacking, his comments, made to reporters in St. Petersburg, Russia, departed from the Kremlins previous position: that Russia had played no role whatsoever in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and that, after Donald J. Trumps victory, the United States had become the victim of anti-Russia hysteria among crestfallen Democrats.
Asked about suspicions that Russia might try to interfere in upcoming elections in Germany, Mr. Putin raised the possibility of attacks on foreign votes by what he portrayed as free-spirited Russian patriots. Hackers, he said, are like artists who choose their targets depending how they feel when they wake up in the morning. Any such attacks, he added, could not alter the result of elections in Europe, America or elsewhere.
Artists, he said, paint if they wake up feeling in good spirits while hackers respond if they wake up and read that something is going on in interstate relations that prompts them to take action. 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, Mr. Putin added, apparently a reference to Hillary Clinton.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/world/europe/vladimir-putin-donald-trump-hacking.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
Freethinker65
(9,999 posts)George II
(67,782 posts)TomCADem
(17,382 posts)nt
in the russian army.
Marthe48
(16,898 posts)how about stfu
Squinch
(50,911 posts)Brother Buzz
(36,373 posts)Don't complicate things
dalton99a
(81,391 posts)iluvtennis
(19,833 posts)JHB
(37,154 posts)moondust
(19,958 posts)No, they're like...what's that word...criminals. And if their leader does not condemn them he sanctions them with his silence.
Whoever did it knew exactly what Pooty wanted.