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Kremlin Dismisses U.S. Report on Election Hacking as “Witch Hunt” | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks to members of the press at Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York City, U.S. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid


Moscow, Washington – Allegations of Russia’s hacking and involvement in the presidential elections is a “witch hunt,” said the Kremlin.

In his first reaction on the U.S. intelligence report, Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, dismissed reports alleging the Kremlin interfered with the U.S. election as “absolutely unfounded” and “amateurishly emotional.”

Peskov said the conclusion by the CIA, which was endorsed by the FBI and 15 other intelligence agencies, was “already reminiscent of a witch-hunt” adding that they observed these accusations with a serious fatigue.

Spokesperson told reporters that there had been previous witch-hunts in the U.S. history, but those periods came to an end when what he described as more sober leaders took charge.

Peskov added that the report made public “added no substance whatsoever that we can comment on.”

He described the report as a “disappointment” and criticized the “amount of emotions on this scarce material.”

Peskov reiterated the Kremlin’s position, as in the past, which ruled out that any Russian official could have been involved in hacking related to the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova made a comment on the intelligence report on her official Facebook page. She wrote: “It seems to me that ‘Russian hackers’ hacked only two things in the US which are Obama’s brains and the very report on the ‘Russian hackers.”

Last week, US intelligence published a declassified report on the alleged Russian hackers’ activities aimed at meddling in the American elections.

The report claims that the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of Russia’s Armed Forces handed confidential information about the U.S. Democratic Party over to Wikileaks.

According to the report, investigations found that Moscow was responsible for carrying out a cyberattack on the Democratic National Committee, as well as a smaller attack on its Republican counterpart, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and manager John Podesta, and other political organizations.

The report also concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an “influence campaign” aimed at hurting Hillary Clinton and helping Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

Trump’s incoming White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, said the president-elect “is not denying that entities in Russia were behind this particular hacking campaign.”

“I think he accepts the findings,” Priebus said, adding that Democrats “allowed” hackers to steal material.

President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump refrained from commenting on Russia’s sarcastic comments on the report.

Trump met with reporters at the lobby of Trump Tower, but his statement focused on internal economic and health issues. While Obama is expected to make a statement soon before his days at the White House are over.

The report pointed out that both Russia and China are among the challenges that Trump will have to face during his presidency period.

U.S. analysts said that the report meets with Trump’s plan concerning China, but disagrees with his point of view about his Russian friend.