Russian hackers have been widely credited with the massive cyber attack in July on the Democratic National Committee, which resulted in the release of 20,000 e-mails just days before the party’s convention.
The hack, which has proven to be more widespread than previously believed, was a major embarrassment for the D.N.C., leading then-chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Shultz to step down and fueling speculation that the Kremlin was attempting to tilt the scales in favor of Donald Trump.
On Thursday, Vladimir Putin addressed the rumors as only the former K.G.B. officer would, fiercely denying that Russia hacked the Democratic Party’s servers but humbly suggesting that whoever did acted heroically.
“Listen, does it even matter who hacked this data?” the Russian president said in an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday in Vladivostok.
“The important thing is that the content was given to the public.” The e-mails made public as a result of the D.N.C. cyber breach, of which the organization was reportedly aware as far back as April, revealed widespread favoritism toward Hillary Clinton over her rival Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary, prompting Wasserman Shultz’s resignation and creating a minor P.R. disaster for the party just as Clinton was preparing to accept the party’s nomination. Asked about the fallout by Bloomberg, Putin used the opportunity to slight the U.S. party system, which he suggested was obviously biased. It shouldn’t even have been newsworthy, he said, that “the campaign headquarters worked in the interest of one of the candidates, in this case Mrs. Clinton, rather than equally for all of the Democratic Party candidates.”
Putin further dismissed the notion that the hack was purposed to influence the presidential election. “To do that you need to have a finger on the pulse and get the specifics of the domestic political life of the U.S.,” he told Bloomberg.
“I’m not sure that even our Foreign Ministry experts are sensitive enough.” Despite international outrage over Trump’s inflammatory, nativist rhetoric, Putin has remained something of a cheerleader of the G.O.P. nominee, whose foreign policy aligns neatly with his own.
Trump, who has repeatedly exchanged praise with Putin, shocked U.S. allies earlier this summer when he
suggested that if he were elected, he wouldn’t necessarily come to the aid of the Baltic states in the event of a Russian invasion, an action that would upend the 67-year-old NATO alliance.
Trump later defended thawing relations with Putin, asking “wouldn’t it be great if we got along with Russia?”
Trump’s decidedly pro-Russian policy platform also sharply contrasts with Clinton’s attitude toward Putin, whom she referred to last week as “the grand godfather of this global brand of extreme nationalism.” The Democratic nominee didn’t hold back from pointing a finger at Putin for the D.N.C. cyber attack, either.
“We know that Russian intelligence services, which is part of the Russian government which is under the firm control of Vladimir Putin hacked into the D.N.C.,” she said .
But Putin is standing firm by his denial. “I don’t know anything about it,” he said Thursday. “And on a state level, Russia has never done this.”
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