hehehehehe.......Incoming U.S. President Donald Trump has
hailed the decision of Russian President Vladimir Putin to delay his
planned expulsion of 35 U.S. diplomats.
Putin’s planned expulsion of 35 U.S.
diplomats was in response to Thursday’s expulsion of 35 Russian
diplomats from U.S. among other sanctions over Russia’s interference in
the U.S. presidential election.
Trump, who had consistently dismissed
Russia’s involvement in the hack, took to his twitter handle and called
Putin’s decision a “great move”.
“Great move on delay (by V. Putin) – I always knew he was very smart!” Trump tweeted.
Reports quoted Putin as saying on Friday
that Moscow would not expel American diplomats in response to U.S.
sanctions against Russia.
“Further steps toward the restoration of
Russian-American relations will be built on the basis of the policies
carried out by the administration of President Trump,” a Kremlin
statement said.
Putin said he would not pursue
“irresponsible diplomacy” and would instead attempt to rebuild relations
with Washington after the inauguration of Trump.
However, Putin said that Russia reserved
the right to respond to the new U.S. sanctions, which included the
expulsion of 35 diplomats from the U.S.
Obama had on Thursday said his actions were “in response to Russian malicious cyber activity and harassment”.
“Today, I have ordered a number of
actions in response to the Russian government’s aggressive harassment of
U.S. officials and cyber operations aimed at the U.S. election.
“These actions follow repeated private
and public warnings that we have issued to the Russian government, and
are a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm U.S.
interests in violation of established international norms of behaviour.”
“The State Department is also shutting
down two Russian compounds in Maryland and New York, used by Russian
personnel for intelligence-related purposes, and is declaring “persona
non grata” 35 Russian intelligence operatives.
“Finally, the Department of Homeland
Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are releasing
declassified technical information on Russian civilian and military
intelligence service cyber activity.
“This is to help network defenders in
the United States and abroad identify, detect, and disrupt Russia’s
global campaign of malicious cyber activities,” Obama said.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, had thrown his weight behind Obama’s decision, describing it as “long overdue”.
Many Republican Congress members have
criticised Russia’s alleged meddling in the election against Donald
Trump’s position on the issue.
Trump had in a series of tweets,
dismissed the hacking allegations and even retweeted Russian President
Vladimir Putin’s tweet against Democratic Hillary Clinton lost
presidency.
“Vladimir Putin said today about Hillary
and Dems: In my opinion, it is humiliating. One must be able to lose
with dignity. So true!” Trump had said.
“Can you imagine if the election results
were the opposite and we tried to play the Russia/CIA card. It would be
called conspiracy theory!”
“If Russia, or some other entity was
hacking, why did the White House wait so long to act? Why did they only
complain after Hillary lost?”
“Are we talking about the same
cyberattack where it was revealed that head of the DNC (Democratic
National Congress) illegally gave Hillary the questions to the debate?”
Trump had also tweeted.
NAN
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