MOSCOW — A Russian presidential spokesman on Tuesday accused U.S. politicians of being paranoid after they blamed Russia for a hack of Democratic National Committee emails and said the country is backing Republican Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential race.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign on Monday suggested the goal of the hack was to benefit Republican Donald Trump’s campaign. Trump has dismissed the claims, calling them a joke.
Hacked emails posted by Wikileaks Friday suggested the Democratic National Committee was favoring Clinton over her primary rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Tuesday that the allegation is just another “paranoid” attempt by American politicians to play what he called “the Russia card” during the campaign.
“We’re still witnessing attempts to use the Russian issue — in a paranoid way — during the U.S. election campaign,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “There’s nothing new here, it’s a sort of traditional pastime of theirs. We think it’s not good for bilateral ties but we realize that we have to go through this unfavorable period.”