Former CIA Deputy Director John McLaughlin said Monday that Vladimir Putin’s reaction to accusations of Russian meddling in the U.S. election is similar to his first reaction when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.
“I think what Putin said is very similar to what he said when they invaded Crimea. If you recall, his initial reaction was, no, that’s not Russians, it’s patriotic — it’s someone else, not even in marked uniforms,” McLaughlin said.
The Russian annexation of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea began when Russian forces began occupying key parts of the region. Russia initially denied having a military presence in Ukraine.
In an interview aired Sunday with Megyn Kelly on NBC News, Putin shifted blame for 2016 election meddling to sources outside of Russia.
“Hackers can be anywhere, they can be in Russia, in Asia, even in America, Latin America. 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,” Putin said.
The U.S. intelligence community has judged that Putin used cyberactivity to affect the U.S. electoral process.
A joint report released in January by the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency stated: “We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election. Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency.”
Putin has denied authorizing anything to influence the U.S. election and said that U.S. intelligence agencies and congressional oversight committees “have been misled.”
“It’s classic Putin,” McLaughlin said, “I think the way I would summarize it is, he strives successfully to create ambiguity, which becomes clearer. I think it will become clearer in this case, as well.”
