The US intelligence on Friday released a report, making public its assessment of Russia's interference in the presidential election last year. The report declared that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered a hidden campaign to influence election in favour of Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton.
"We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election," the report said.
The report added that Moscow's goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process.
"We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump. We have high confidence in these judgments," it said.
Friday’s declaration was the government's first formal allegation supporting sensational claims that Trump and his supporters have staunchly resisted.
The report said that Moscow's action was part of its ‘longstanding desire to undermine the US-led liberal democratic order’ and demonstrated a ‘significant escalation in directness, level of activity, and scope of effort’.
The report is the declassified version of a comprehensive intelligence report that US President Barack Obama directed the intelligence community to conduct on December 9, 2016.
Trump has repeatedly refused to accept the findings that Russia has intervened in the 2016 presidential election. He quoted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange this week to voice new doubt about the hacking claim made by US intelligence agencies.
The Russian government has also denied the accusations.
On Friday, Trump met chiefs of intelligence agencies in New York to be briefed on alleged Russia cyber attacks against the US. Following the meeting, Trump said the alleged hacking activities had no impact on the election results and he didn't directly acknowledge Moscow's responsibility.
However, Trump added that he had a "constructive meeting" with the top intelligence officials, and he had "tremendous respect" for the work of the intelligence community.
The President-elect also said he will appoint a team within 90 days to figure out ways to stop foreign hacking.
"Whether it is our government, organizations, associations or businesses we need to aggressively combat and stop cyberattacks," he said.
With IANS Inputs
