Vladimir Putin: Americans Might Have Framed Russia for DNC Hacks

Russian President Vladimir Putin told NBC’s Megyn Kelly that hacking attacks against the Democratic Party in the leadup to the 2016 U.S. presidential election may have been an inside job. “Hackers can be anywhere. They can be in Russia, in Asia, even in America, Latin America,” Putin said, in a segment released Friday evening. “They can even be hackers, by the way, in the United States who very skillfully and professionally shifted the blame, as we say, onto Russia. Can you imagine something like that? In the midst of a political battle?”

Putin said that “it was convenient for [hackers] to release” hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and then pin the hacking on Russia. “Could you imagine something like that? I can.” U.S. intelligence agencies have fingered Russian state actors as the most likely culprits behind the hackings since July 2016. Putin’s interview with Kelly is set to air in full on MSNBC on Sunday evening.