Russia to US: prove hacking allegations or shut up

Obama earlier said US will take action against Russia for allegedly influencing the country’s presidential election

TOKYO/WASHINGTON: The Kremlin has said the United States should either prove accusations that Russia interfered in its November 8 presidential election by hacking Democratic Party organisations or drop the issue.

“Either stop talking about it or finally provide some evidence. Otherwise it looks indecent,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Tokyo on Friday after some US officials suggested Russia’s President Vladimir Putin supervised the hacks and American President Barack Obama warned that Washington would take action against Moscow.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov separately told state TV channel Rossiya-24 that he was ‘dumbstruck’ by suggestions of Putin’s alleged involvement in the hacking.

Meanwhile, Russia’s TASS news agency quoted Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov as telling reporters in Tokyo that Putin had explained Russia’s stance on the issue to Obama on the sidelines of the G20 summit in September.

“There was a tete-a-tete conversation and different themes were discussed,” Ushakov was cited as saying.

“This theme was touched upon.  A really clear reply was given by our side which perhaps did not fit with what Obama was trying to explain to us.”

In an interview with National Public Radio on Thursday, Obama said the US will take action against Russia for allegedly influencing the country’s presidential election.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2016.