Putin denies involvement in hacking, praises Trump

President Vladimir Putin insists that Russia has never engaged in hacking and says Moscow will wait out the current political storm in the US to forge constructive relations with President Donald Trump, whom he praised as a straightforward person with a “fresh set of eyes.”

The Russian leader acknowledges the possibility that some individual “patriotic” hackers could have mounted some attacks amid the current cold spell in Russia’s relations with the West, but scoffs at allegations that hackers could influence the outcome of elections in the United States or Europe.

“I can imagine that some do it deliberately, staging a chain of attacks in such a way as to cast Russia as the origin of such an attack,” Putin says. “Modern technologies allow that to be done quite easily.”

— AP