Russian President Vladimir Putin Personally Involved in U.S. Election Hack, U.S. Intelligence Officials Say
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Was Russian President Vladimir Putin personally involved in the U.S. election hack? NBC News has in a damning new report claimed that several U.S. intelligence officials now believe with “a high level of confidence” that Russian President Vladimir Putin was indeed personally involved in the hack conducted to influence U.S. election results to favor Donald Trump. The report cites two “senior intelligence officers with direct access to the information” who told NBC News that they have information which establishes Putin’s direct involvement in the hacks. The officers claimed that the information about the Russian premiere’s involvement came from multiple diplomatic sources and spies working for U.S. allies around the globe.
If the newest report does turn out to be true, it would mean that Putin’s involvement was at a deeper level than what 17 intelligence agencies had earlier assessed. Back in October, these agencies had signed onto a statement blaming Russia for the Democratic National Committee hack. The news of the possibility of Vladimir Putin’s involvement in the election hack comes just days after President Obama ordered a full review into the incident. Later, White House Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor Lisa Monaco was quoted saying,
“The President has directed the Intelligence Community to conduct a full review of what happened during the 2016 election process. It is to capture lessons learned from that and to report to a range of stakeholders. This is consistent with the work that we did over the summer to engage Congress on the threats that we were seeing.”
Monaco also added that the review is planned to be completed before Donald Trump is formally elected the president of the United States on January 20 since Obama is keen to get a report before he leaves office.
The NBC News report meanwhile claims that Vladimir Putin had “multifaceted objectives” with the election hacks, and that it all began as a vendetta against Hillary Clinton. Over time, however, it metamorphosed into “an effort to show corruption in American politics and to split off key American allies by creating the image that [other countries] couldn’t depend on the U.S. to be a credible global leader anymore,” an intelligence officer is quoted saying. While the FBI and several other agencies seem to be still skeptical about this, CIA maintains that the primary objective behind the hacks was to ensure Donald Trump’s victory. Very few intelligence officers digress from this observation.
The NBC report also claims that Putin’s involvement in the operation is “nearly incontrovertible,” a view that is also endorsed by Michael McFaul who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014. McFaul is quoted saying to NBC,
“It is most certainly consistent with the Putin that I have watched and used to work with when I was an ambassador and in the government. He has had a vendetta against Hillary Clinton, that has been known for a long time because of what she said about his elections back in the parliamentary elections of 2011. He wants to discredit American democracy and make us weaker in terms of leading the liberal democratic order. And most certainly he likes President-elect Trump’s views on Russia,”
Meanwhile, there are reports of U.S. intelligence officials planning a probable retaliation against the Russian election hacks. The primary target here is, again, Putin and his personal financial empire which according to current estimates is worth around $85 billion. However, a former senior CIA official is skeptical about the move and believes that the U.S. may not be able to embarrass Putin since most Russians are already aware of allegations that claim that Putin has managed to amass a fortune through corruption.
[Featured Image by Alexei Druzhinin/AP Images]
