Tag: Vladimir Putin

Trump Thanks Putin for Expelling Diplomatic Staff

Buck Banks

“I’m very thankful that he let go of a large number of people because now we have a smaller payroll.”

— U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday, thanking Russian President Vladimir Putin for ordering the United States to slash its diplomatic staff in Russia, breaking nearly two weeks of silence on Putin’s July 30 order cutting U.S. embassy and consulate staff by nearly two thirds, Reuters reports.

Putin Admits Some Russians Might Have Hacked U.S. Election

Buck Banks

“If they are patriotically minded, they start making their contributions — which are right, from their point of view — to the fight against those who say bad things about Russia.”

— Russian President Vladimir Putin, shifting away from his previous blanket denials of Russian involvement in cyberattacks last year to help the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, denied any state role on Thursday but said that “patriotically minded” private Russian hackers could have been involved, the New York Times reports.

Putin Directed Russian Hack Attacks

Buck Banks

Two senior officials with direct access to the information say new intelligence shows that Putin personally directed how hacked material from Democrats was leaked and otherwise used. The intelligence came from diplomatic sources and spies working for U.S. allies… What began as a ‘vendetta’ against Hillary Clinton morphed into an effort to show corruption in American politics and to ‘split off key American allies by creating the image that [other countries] couldn’t depend on the U.S. to be a credible global leader anymore.

— NBC News