Top Russian Official: Maybe We Helped With Wikileaks

The Guardian reports:

After an election campaign in which Russia has been openly accused of interfering in favour of Donald Trump, his surprise victory led to applause in the Russian parliament, a swift call from the president, Vladimir Putin, for a new era of “fully fledged relations” between his country and the US, and the suggestion that US-imposed sanctions could be lifted.

Speaking in the Kremlin, Putin congratulated Trump on his victory and said Russia was ready to work for better ties. “We understand that it will not be an easy path given the current state of degradation in the relations,” he said.

Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin political analyst, was jubilant at the result and said a Trump presidency would make it more likely the US would agree with Russia on Syria, where the two powers back different sides and Moscow has intervened decisively on behalf of the president, Bashar al-Assad.

Markov also said it would mean less American backing for “the terroristic junta in Ukraine”. He denied allegations of Russian interference in the election, but said “maybe we helped a bit with WikiLeaks.” The Obama administration accused Russian authorities of hacking Democratic party emails that were leaked to WikiLeaks. Putin has previously dismissed as “nonsense” claims of Russian interference.

Markov was elected to the Duma in 2007 as a member of the ruling right-wing United Russia party.