Kremlin calls US hacking accusations 'rubbish'

Moscow: The Kremlin labelled allegations by the United States that the Russian government was behind the hacking of American political organisations "rubbish".

"This is again some sort of rubbish," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov yesterday told Russian news agency Interfax.

"Every day (President Vladimir) Putin's website gets attacked by several tens of thousand of hackers. A lot of these attacks are traced to the territory of the USA, but we do not blame the White House or Langley each time."

US officials yesterday formally accused the Russian government of directing cyber attacks on American political organisations, saying the hacks were "intended to interfere with the US election process".

"We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorised these activities," said a joint statement from the Department of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The statement was the first official accusation by Washington officials against Moscow in the spate of cyber attacks, although many analysts had said the hacks appeared to be from Russia.

The Kremlin has previously strenuously denied previous claims that Russian officials had anything to do with the attacks on organisations in the US.