Even as WikiLeaks released another trove of internal documents from Hillary Clinton’s campaign on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted his country was not involved in an effort to influence the US presidential election, Reuters reports:
Last week, the U.S. government formally accused Russia of launching a hacking campaign to “interfere with the U.S. election process.”
Clinton’s campaign, which has charged the Kremlin is trying to help Republican Donald Trump win the White House on Nov. 8, took its allegations a step further on Tuesday when John Podesta, chairman of the Democratic nominee’s campaign, accused the Trump campaign of colluding with Russia.
In Moscow, Putin said nothing in the hacking scandal is in Russia’s interests and accused all sides in the U.S. presidential campaign of misusing rhetoric about Russia for their own purposes.
“They started this hysteria, saying this (hacking) is in Russia’s interests, but this has nothing to do with Russia’s interests,” Putin told a business forum.
Putin said his government would work with whoever won the U.S. election, “if, of course, the new U.S. leader wishes to work with our country.”
WikiLeaks, the organization started by Julian Assange that publishes leaked information on the internet, this week released thousands of emails from Podesta’s email account and has not said how it obtained them. Last week, it posted excerpts from Clinton’s private speeches to banking and financial firms.
The Clinton campaign has not confirmed the authenticity of the messages.
Telegraph