Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered a cyber campaign to undermine Democratic candidate Hilary and help Donald Trump win the US presidential election, an intelligence report has claimed.
The New York Post reports the 25-page report prepared by the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency said Russia has consistently tried to disrupt “the US-led liberal democratic order” but the recent hacking “demonstrated a significant escalation in directness, level of activity and scope of effort compared to previous operations.”
Though no evidence was tabled to back up the theory, officials say information had to remain secret.
“This document’s conclusions are identical to the highly classified assessment, but this document does not include the full supporting information, including specific intelligence on key elements of the influence campaign,” the report said.
Among the findings was that Putin harboured a years-long grudge against Clinton after she slammed his autocratic rule when she was secretary of state.
“Putin most likely wanted to discredit Secretary Clinton because he has publicly blamed her since 2011 for inciting mass protests against his regime … and because he holds a grudge for comments he almost certainly saw as disparaging him,” the report said.
Putin preferred Trump, it said, because he had spoken about improving relations with Russia and would be a partner in battling Islamic terrorism.
“Moscow also saw the election of President-elect Trump as a way to achieve an international counter-terrorism coalition against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant,” the report said.
The Russians and their spy agency GRU orchestrated cyberattacks against the Democratic National Committee and Clinton aide John Podesta and fed hacked e-mails to WikiLeaks, DC Leaks and a Russian-linked hacker named Guccifer, the report said.
Russia’s state-sponsored English-language TV network RT also repeatedly slammed Clinton and praised Trump in its programming, the report said.
Trump at first mocked allegations of Russian involvement and earlier Friday called the probe a politically motivated “witch hunt.”
However, after meeting with Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan and FBI Director James Comey at Trump Tower Friday, he acknowledged Russian cyberattacks. Nevertheless, he said there was no evidence Russia influenced the outcome of the presidential election.
“There was absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election including the fact that there was no tampering whatsoever with voting machines,” the president-elect said in a statement.
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