US official promises to crack down on Russian meddling in response to Putin’s joke

U.S. President Donald Trump, right, meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka on Friday. Photo: AP/Susan Walsh. Sketched by the Pan Pacific Agency.

WASHINGTON D.C., Oct 3, 2019, TASS. The US has all instruments to counter Russia’s potential interference in the US presidential election in 2020, an official representing the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency stated in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s joke regarding this topic. Jeff Seldin, a correspondent of the Voice of America radio station, quoted the official on Twitter, reported the TASS.

Earlier on Wednesday, in response to a question on whether Russia plans to meddle in the upcoming US presidential election in 2020, Putin joked: “Let me tell you a secret: yes, we will definitely do that, just to entertain you even more.” The Russian leader added that Russia is busy with resolving its own domestic problems.

“We’ve got all instruments of our power in our government countering it,” the agency’s Assistant Director for Cybersecurity and Communications Jeanette Manfra told Voice of America.

In May 2017, the US Department of Justice announced that former FBI Chief Robert Mueller had been appointed as special counsel to investigate alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election. On the outcomes of the probe, Mueller failed to prove that US President Donald Trump had colluded with the Russian government to win the election.

A report by US Attorney General William Burr published on March 24 has confirmed that there was no collusion between Moscow and the Donald Trump presidential campaign. However, the document claims that Russia attempted to influence the outcome of the US 2016 presidential election through cyberattacks, as well as through the activities of Russia’s Internet Research Agency.

Trump and key members of his team have been repeatedly rejecting all the accusations concerning any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Moscow has also been refuting these allegations.

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