WASHINGTON — The Federal Bureau of Investigation suspects Russian intelligence agencies are behind the recent hacking of the emails of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman and of a contractor handling Florida voter data, according to people briefed on the investigations.
Top Russian officials on Wednesday, meanwhile, shifted away from denying a role in a separate hack of the Democratic National Committee. President Vladimir Putin said it is irrelevant who stole the computer records, and the foreign minister said that the U.S. hasn’t proven anything so far.
The comments, made in separate public appearances, reflect an ambivalence among top Russian officials about accusations made Friday by U.S. intelligence agencies that Moscow directed a hack-and-leak campaign aimed at interfering in the U.S. election.
“Everyone is saying, ‘Who did it?’” Putin said Wednesday at an investor forum in Moscow. “But does it matter that much? It’s what’s inside the information that matters.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday, in an interview on CNN, didn’t deny involvement in the recent hacking operation. “We did not deny this,” he said, but added, “They did not prove it.”
