Russia: U.S. accusation Moscow influencing election with hacks 'flattering' but 'ridiculous'

MOSCOW, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has called the U.S. government's claim that Moscow is interfering with the 2016 presidential election "flattering" but "ridiculous."

"It's flattering, of course, to get this kind of attention -- for a regional power, as President Obama called us some time ago," Lavrov told CNN. "Now everybody in the United States is saying that it is Russia which is running the presidential debate ... We have not seen a single fact, a single proof."

On Friday, the administration of President Barack Obama accused Russia of a series of hacks into campaign and other computer systems, including a hack into the Democratic National Committee's servers.

Lavrov said the possibility the U.S. government may retaliate against the Russian government through cyberattacks "is not worth speculating."

"If they decide to do something, let them do it," Lavrov added.

The Russian company to which the hack was traced -- King Servers -- characterized the hacker or hackers who broke into the DNC servers as amateurs, calling into question whether Russian government security services were involved.

"I don't think that the security services work so unprofessionally," King Servers owner Vladimir Fomenko told Russia Beyond the Headlines. "Of course, I can only judge from movies, but even the James Bond movies show Russians as more inventive."

Fomenko said he did not understand why his company is being singled out if six of eight hacks cited in the U.S. intelligence report were traced to servers owned by his company while two others were traced elsewhere.

"One of them is located in the Netherlands, I don't know about the other. But it's all just about us. What is this? Prejudice?" Fomenko added. "If we consider the situation from the other side, it is unclear why the FBI and related experts are talking only about our company."

Fomenko said his company was chosen to provide servers by the hackers because it is a well known company with some of the most advanced servers worldwide.

"Plus, the cost of services is lower. Although the criminals still owe us money," Fomenko added.

Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, whose apparent emails have been released by WikiLeaks, said Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's campaign was warned in advance about the release of the emails, accusing the Trump campaign of coordinating with Russian intelligence services.

"I've been involved in politics for nearly five decades. And this definitely is the first campaign that I've been involved with in which I've had to tangle with Russian Intelligence agencies," Podesta told reporters, adding that the agencies "seem to be doing everything they can on behalf of our opponent."

Podesta said he thinks Trump adviser Roger Stone is linked to the hackers, particularly because Stone recently said he was communicating with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Stone in August warned that "Democrats are right to fear Assange's next email drops will be devastating to Hillary."

Podesta said that through those incidents, it is "a reasonable conclusion, that Mr. Stone had advance warning, and the Trump campaign had advance warning about what Assange was going to do."

"We don't know, we can't be certain why the Russian government seems to be trying to interfere in this election in favor of Mr. Trump, but we do know that is in fact what has been going on, the hacks, the leaks, and the ongoing support for one side of this campaign," Podesta said.

Stone told Yahoo News that Podesta's accusations are "laughably absurd and categorically false."

"He should make any evidence he has that would prove this claim public. There is none," Stone said, adding that though he did communicate with Assange, Podesta's "name never came up."

In reference to a tweet by Stone in August in which he said that it would soon be "Podesta's time in the barrel," Stone said that statement was "based entirely on my own research" -- not due to collusion with Assange.