RIA news agency quoted Putin as saying he would consider the actions of President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office next month, when deciding on further steps in Russia-US relations. Earlier, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov proposed to Putin that Moscow expel 35 US diplomats and ban US diplomatic staff from using two facilities in Moscow, his Ministry said.
This followed President Barack Obama’s decision to expel the 35 Russian diplomats suspected of spying and to impose sanctions on the two Russian intelligence agencies over their alleged involvement in hacking US political groups in the 2016 presidential election. Lavrov said the allegations that Russia interfered in US elections were baseless. Russian officials have portrayed the US sanctions as a last act of a lame-duck President and suggested that Trump could reverse them when he takes over the White House in January.
Meanwhile US President-elect Donald Trump has praised Vladimir Putin after he ruled out expelling American diplomats, despite a similar move by Washington in response to alleged hacking, claiming that was a smart move by Putin.
The contrast between the words of the President and those of the President-elect could not be more stark. Siding with a foreign adversary instead of the sitting President is a dramatic departure from normal diplomatic practice during this transition phase. And Donald Trump may find himself alone in his admiration. President Obama has broad bipartisan support for his actions and a full hearing to discuss the hacking allegations has been scheduled in Congress next week.
While Mr Putin is playing it very cool and appearing nonchalant by not appearing to take any retaliatory measures and even inviting children of US diplomats to the Kremlin for the New Year the fact remains that cyber security investigators have conclusively proven that the attacks were done by people with links to Russian intelligence, including the FSB and GRU, two Russian intelligence agencies.
So when Senator John McCain, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, described the Russian hacking as an “act of war” and said that “there should be a price to pay”, even though he is Republican, he is not far off from the truth. Deliberately leaking secret Democratic e-mails which contained embarrassing information was a calculated ploy to affect the US elections – an integral part of the US democratic process. Mr Obama may have taken this action because he knew in the little time that he had there was not much scope for him to do else.
