“Maybe the Democrats are putting that out – who knows”, Trump said of the Clinton campaign’s accusations that Russian Federation is trying to rig the USA election in Trump’s favor. Moscow and the U.S. take opposing sides in this conflict that had been raging for five years already and saw 300 000 people die and millions of people had to flee for fear of being next.
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“Somehow behavior that in normal times we would consider completely unacceptable and outrageous becomes normalized” during an election campaign, Obama said Thursday at the conclusion of a southeast Asian summit meeting in Laos.
He declined to say whether a meeting on Syria between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, originally planned for September 8-9 in Geneva, would be held.
Any deal would depend on Moscow using its influence to persuade the Syrian leader to ground planes and stop the assault on opposition forces, the Associated Press said.
The strategy has hinged on the two sides agreeing to closer militarily coordination against extremist groups operating in Syria. In Wednesday night’s forum on national security issues, Trump said, “I think I would have a very, very good relationship with Putin”. But Obama has expressed skepticism that Russian Federation would hold to its agreement.
Private cybersecurity analysts have blamed Russian intelligence agencies for electronic break-ins into Democratic Party computers, including a breach of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the House Democrats’ campaign arm.
Putin insisted he believed a deal with Washington could be firmed up in the “coming days” but refused to give concrete details, saying that USA and Russian officials are still “working out some of our preliminary agreements”.
Russian Federation has backed Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, but the United States has worked with what it says are moderate opposition forces fighting against him.
Mr Putin has denied his government was involved, but cheered the release of the information.
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Though the United States doubtless spends more money than any other nation on cyberwarfare, actual public cyberwars between nations have not been seen and it isn’t well understood how they would unfold, let alone whether the United States investments really make them the strongest in such a battle. There was agreement, not just between myself and Mr. (Vladimir) Putin, but with Chancellor (Angela) Merkel and President (Francois) Hollande, that that effort should increase in urgency over the next several weeks.
