Putin Hints at Russian Role in Hacking U.S. Election

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

Said Putin: “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.”