Obama tells Putin to cut it out over cyber attacks

President Barack Obama on Friday (December 16) said he warned Russian President Vladimir Putin in September to stop meddling in American political campaigns after hacks of Democratic Party emails in the lead-up to the November 8 elections.

In a pre-Christmas holiday press conference, Obama said he told Putin to “cut it out” during a face-to-face encounter in China where a G20 meeting was being held.

“When I saw President Putin in China I felt that the most effective way to ensure that that didn’t happen was to talk to him directly and tell him to cut it out, that there were going to be some serious consequences if he didn’t,” Obama said.

“Our goal continues to be to send a clear message to Russia or others not to do this to us. Because we can do stuff to you,” he said.

Obama added that after warning Putin, there was no further evidence of Russian tampering. Russia has denied U.S. accusations of cyber attacks against U.S. political figures and institutions ahead of the presidential and congressional elections.

Two senior government officials told Reuters that the FBI backs the CIA’s view that Russia intervened to help Republican Donald Trump win the presidential election.

“This was not some elaborate complicated espionage scheme. They hacked into some Democratic party emails that contained pretty routine stuff,” Obama said. “And then it just took off.”

Obama left open the door to U.S. retaliation against Russia to discourage it and other nations from further computer hacking.

The president also said that he hoped that Trump, who takes office on January 20, should be similarly concerned about Russia’s actions and that the investigation should not become “a political football” between Republicans and Democrats.

“That should be a bipartisan issue. That shouldn’t be a partisan issue. And my hope is that the president-elect is going to similarly be concerned with making sure that we don’t have potential foreign influence in our election process,” Obama said.

Trump has maintained that he won the election fairly and has bristled at suggestions that Moscow influenced the outcome.

But Democrats have repeatedly noted that Trump, during his campaign, had spoken glowingly about Putin and since winning the election has picked top aides in the incoming administration with ties to Russia.

At one point during the heated presidential campaign, Trump publicly encouraged Russia to hack Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s emails.