Kremlin Dismisses Notion That It Had Anything to Do With DNC Hack

The Kremlin has dismissed the charge that it had anything to do with the hack that exposed nearly 20,000 emails from top DNC officials.

The emails, leaked to the public via Wikileaks on Friday, reveal that the DNC leadership showed favoritism for Hillary Clinton over Sen. Bernie Sanders, enflaming intra-party discord as the DNC kicked off in Philadelphia Monday.

“We are again seeing these maniacal attempts to exploit the Russian theme in the U.S. election campaign,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to Reuters.

“This is not breaking new ground, this is an old trick which is being played again. This is not good for our bilateral relations, but we understand that we simply have to get through this unpleasant period,” he added.

Experts are confident that Russia was behind the hack, fueling speculation that Russian President Vladmir Putin is angling to give Donald Trump a boost in the presidential election.

Reuters notes:

Analysts say the Kremlin would welcome a Trump win because the billionaire U.S. businessman has repeatedly praised Putin, spoken of wanting to get along with Russia, and has said he would consider an alliance with Moscow against Islamic State.

Trump’s suggestion he might abandon NATO’s pledge to automatically defend all alliance members is also likely to have gone down well in Moscow, where the military alliance is cast as an outdated Cold War relic.

Putin has praised Trump as being “really brilliant and talented.”

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Sam Reisman (@thericeman) is a staff editor at Mediaite.

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