Former US Vice President and war criminal Dick Cheney has claimed that Russia’s (alleged) interference in the 2016 presidential election could be “considered an act of war.”
Cheney, who served for eight years under President George W. Bush, made his remarks during a global business summit in New Delhi on Monday
“There’s not any argument at this stage that somehow the election of President Trump was not legitimate, but there’s no question that there was a very serious effort made by Mr. Putin and his government, his organization, to interfere in major ways with our basic, fundamental democratic processes,” Cheney said, adding that “in some quarters, that would be considered an act of war.”
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Cheney, who said he was speaking only for himself, said he believed Russia was flexing its muscles as a global power and also accused Russia of meddling in the U.S.’s strongest treaty alliance.
“He (President Putin) is doing everything he can to find ways to undermine NATO,” Cheney said.
Press TV reports:
During his presidential campaign and afterwards, Trump repeatedly praised Putin and called for closer ties between Washington and Moscow, despite the hacking allegations.
Cheney warned the Trump administration against improving ties with Russia under the leadership of Putin, saying the Russia leader has operated “in ways that none of his predecessors have done for the last 40 years.”
“I would not underestimate the weight that we as Americans assign to the Russian attempts to interfere with our internal political processes,” said Cheney, who served as President George W. Bush’s No. 2.
The US intelligence community has reportedly shared with foreign governments the classified version of their report on what they believe was a Russian plot to help Trump defeat his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
The Russian president wants to “undermine the perceived validity of the democratic model and try to suggest an authoritarian model is equally valid,” has accused Senator Tim Kaine, Clinton’s vice presidential running mate in last year’s election.
Despite Russia’s alleged cyber attacks of mostly Democratic officials during the US presidential race, several American intelligence officials, however, privately acknowledge there is no evidence that hackers altered the result of the election itself.
