When the American intelligence community declared that Russia tried to influence the election via a hacking campaign ordered by Vladimir Putin himself, most of the world held its breath for how the Kremlin would react. Well, it took almost three days, but the Kremlin has finally responded. Predictably, it thinks Washington is on a fishing trip.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that his government “categorically denied” any Kremlin involvement in hacking, and was getting tired of the finger-pointing from Washington. He dismissed the report as being full of “groundless accusations” that had been presented in “an amateurish, unprofessional way.”
Peskov–or rather, Putin speaking through Peskov–harrumphed that the Americans seemed to be on “a witch hunt” reminiscent of “earlier stages of their history.” However, during those stages, the people who made such claims were “replaced with more sober experts” who weren’t as given to “emotional fits.”
Pretty serious accusations. In essence, Peskov is saying the intelligence community’s report was shot through with incompetence and overreaction. But as they say, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Unfortunately, Peskov didn’t seem to have elaborated on what exactly was untrue in that report. How do we know? Well, the pro-Kremlin cable “news” channel, RT (formerly known as Russia Today), where you would expect such details to have been brought out, hasn’t reported on them–if such details were discussed at all.
Instead, what we got from RT is stuff like this.
As proof of how dense they are, RT’s reporters seem to be asking why the FBI and CIA aren’t willing to share how they drew the conclusions made in the report.
Gee, that couldn’t be because it could endanger our intelligence sources? But then again, we are talking about a government that is willing to work with the likes of WikiLeaks, an outfit that has amply demonstrated it has no regard whatsoever for privacy.
Show us the money, Vladimir Vladimirovich. Either tell us what exactly in the report is untrue, or shut up. Then again, you have a third option. Admit what you did–that you deliberately tried to interfere with our democracy.
(featured image courtesy DonkeyHotey, available under a Creative Commons BY-SA license)
