Kremlin: US Covering Up Election Intrigue by Demonizing Russia

The Kremlin said on Monday that U.S. allegations that Moscow was behind the hacking of Democratic Party e-mails were part of a cover-up designed to hide the fact that the election campaign had been manipulated by domestic forces.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said on Sunday Russian intelligence services had hacked into Democratic National Committee computers, and she questioned Republican rival Donald Trump’s overtures to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Such pronouncements by Mrs. Clinton are of the pre-election rhetoric genre and do not contain anything tangible,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.

“In this case they [the Americans] are trying to camouflage some of their own [pre-election] shenanigans by demonizing Russia. We consider that to be wrong.”

Peskov said Clinton’s comments were absurd and emotional and lacking in facts, saying it was wrong to accuse Moscow of wrongdoing without first investigating the accusations.

“Official Russian bodies … do not carry out cyber terrorism,” he said, saying the Kremlin wanted to see U.S.-Russia relations normalized.

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied involvement in the hacking incident and said it does not favor any candidate in the Nov. 8 U.S. election.