Russian president Vladimir Putin dismissed suspicions that his government was responsible for information breaches that saw tens of thousands of files belonging to the Democratic National Committee leaked to the public, and criticized USA presidential candidates from both major parties for using “shock tactics”, in an interview on Thursday.
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In an interview with Bloomberg on Friday, Putin said it was “unfair” to ask Iran to limit its production levels at the moment, but provisions should be put in place soon.
The DNC was hacked prior to WikiLeaks’ release of emails sent by DNC staffers suggesting some in the party actively sought to promote Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign over her rivals.
“Unsurprisingly, Putin has joined Trump in cheering foreign interference in the US election that is clearly created to inflict political damage on Hillary Clinton and Democrats”, Lehrich said in an e-mail.
“You know how many hackers there are today?”
An internal DNC probe by CrowdStrike Inc., a cybersecurity company, traced the DNC break-in to two groups it says are linked to Russian intelligence services.
Trump’s campaign has strongly denied any links to the Russian government or untoward support for the country’s policies.
Trump in July invited Russian Federation to dig up tens of thousands of emails from Clinton’s time as Secretary of State.
Putin was critical of both Clinton and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who Russian Federation has been accused of favoring, however.
“But”, he continued, “I want to tell you again – I don’t know anything about it, and on a state level Russian Federation has never done this”.
In the Bloomberg interview, Putin called allegations that Trump is backed by the Kremlin “nonsense”. Putin is known to use such tactics when he sees his interlocutor as an adversary.
Clinton, who’s called Putin a “bully” other leaders have to stand up to, could heighten tensions with Russian Federation if she becomes president, according to officials in Moscow. “They know how to push the right buttons”.
“I would very much like to hope that all the participants in this market, who want to maintain stable and fair world prices for energy resources, will at the end of the day take the necessary decision”, Putin was quoted as saying.
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The Economy Ministry and some politicians have been calling for greater state spending to spur economic activity, but the Finance Ministry has opposed that, warning the budget deficit may spiral out of control.
