“Putting an end to the unnatural state of affairs that has continued these 70 years, shall we not together carve out a new era for Japan and Russian Federation going forward?”, the premier said. “The important thing is the content that was given to the public”, he said. “That’s what the discussion should be around”.
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But Putin wondered by it mattered who was behind the hacks.
The FBI firmly believes that Russian Federation was behind the DNC hack, leading to concerns that Putin’s government may be trying to influence the US election by obtaining embarrassing documents from the Democratic Party and then releasing them through platforms such as WikiLeaks.
Speaking to Bloomberg ahead of a G20 meeting in China, Putin reiterated that Russian Federation had nothing to do with the DNC hack, describing allegations to the contrary as a distraction.
“I hope to make progress on the peace treaty and territorial issues by holding candid and thorough talks with President Putin”, Abe said before leaving for the forum. “You know there are so many hackers today, and they work with such minute precision, so finely”, he said, adding that hackers are able to “camouflage their activity under the activity of other hackers from other areas, other countries”.
“I don’t know anything about it”.
And Putin rejected a criticism, leveled by critics and opponents of Clinton, that the sale of a Canadian uranium mining company to a Russian company in 2013 was approved by the State Department under Clinton in exchange for a $2.35 million donation to the Clinton Foundation by the chairman of the company.
Clinton has rounded on her Republican rival Trump for his perceived praise of Putin and what she says is an “absolute allegiance” to Russia’s foreign policy aims.
United States intelligence officials believe that the attack was carried out by hackers working for the Russian government.
Obama said in August he would discuss the cyber attack with Putin if Russian Federation was responsible, but it would not “wildly” alter relationship between the two superpowers.
The FBI is now investigating the matter.
Abe’s visit to Russian Federation – his second this year – comes days after the Kremlin announced that Putin will travel to Japan in December, his first trip to the country since 2005. Clinton’s campaign manager, Robert Mook, has suggested that Trump may be a “puppet” for the Kremlin.
Assange has been more amicable with the Russian government than he has been with the US government.
Despite Putin’s comments on Friday, there is increasing scepticism among traders that oil producers will agree on an output freeze at this month’s meeting.
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Trump for his part has called for warmer relations with Russia and questioned the need for North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, a position that would delight the Russian president. Both were vying to become the party’s presidential candidate. They found that the two parties responsible were Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear, both intelligence agencies linked to Putin’s government. It had one of its worst days in two weeks on Thursday after a contraction in USA manufacturing cast doubt on the economic strength of the United States, the world’s biggest oil consumer.
