Putin denies Russian involvement in US Presidential elections hacking

The Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said that elections could not be manipulated by hackers and his government had never done it.

Putin, however, said accepted that some "patriotic" individuals might have carried out cyber attacks in the west to pay back what he said its "Russo-phobic hysteria."

"If they have patriotic leanings, they may try to add their contribution to the fight against those who speak badly about Russia," he said during an exclusive interaction with editors of international news agencies."Theoretically it's possible."

Though, Putin quickly refused any involvement in the elections hacking and said Russia have no intentions to do it. 

"We never engaged in that on a state level, and have no intention of doing so," he said when asked if Russian hackers could try to influence the German parliamentary elections later this year.

The involvement of Russia in election hacking has been raging hugh uproar since the US Presidential elections. US intelligence agencies have been accusing Russia of hacking into Democratic Party emails that helped Donald Trump defeat his rival Hillary Clinton. 

Putin said that in any case hackers cannot possibly sway election outcomes because the electorate is not so easily manipulated.

"I'm deeply convinced that no hackers can radically influence another country's election campaign. No hackers can influence election campaigns in any country of Europe, Asia or America," he said.

Putin also suspected that Russia could be framed by hackers of other countries.

"I can imagine that some do it deliberately, staging a chain of attacks in such a way as to cast Russia as the origin of such an attack," Putin said. "Modern technologies allow that to be done quite easily." 

(With PTI Inputs)