Signaling a low-point in Washington-Moscow relations perhaps not seen since the Cold War, the Obama administration on Friday ended months of speculation and blamed Russia for deploying its hackers to meddle with the U.S. election.
The accusation came at the end of a week that saw the United States halt negotiations with Russia over joint operations in Syria targeting extremist groups. On Friday, the administration broke that silence.
“These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the U.S. election process,” said Jeh Johnson, the secretary of homeland security, and James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, in a statement. “Such activity is not new to Moscow — the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence public opinion there.” “We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities,” he added.
The administration urged “state and local election officials to be vigilant and seek cybersecurity assistance” from the Department of Homeland Security. Yury Melnik, a spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Washington, blasted the Obama administration for making the accusation. “This is another piece of nonsense! Putin’s website is attacked by tens of thousands of hackers daily. Many attacks are traced to the US territory,” he said in a statement. “But we don’t go blaming them on the White House or Langley every time.”