Hilary Clinton has alleged that the Russian government is attempting to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.
The presumptive presidential nominee’s allegations come after WikiLeaks released a treasure trove of incriminating emails stolen from Democratic Party computers.
The identity of the hackers who stole the Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails has yet to be confirmed although many are already blaming Russia, The Guardian reports.
Only last month, Internet security firm CrowdStrike ‘identified two sophisticated adversaries’ attempting to breach the DNC website forcing them to deploy an emergency response team.
CrowdStrike believe that the groups attempting to breach the servers were COZY BEAR and FANCY BEAR, both of whom ‘engage in extensive political and economic espionage for the benefit of the Russian Federation’.
Experts are suggesting that the timings of the leak, just as the Democratic Party convention begins, shows that there’s a clear motive to undermine the credibility of the Democrats with some going so far as to say it’s to bolster the campaign of Donald Trump.
Both Putin and Trump seem to have a degree of mutual admiration for each other, with Putin describing Trump as ‘very bright and talented’ and an ‘absolute leader’ of the presidential race.
While Trump, upon hearing of Putin’s words, said it was a ‘a great honour to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond’.
Political backslapping aside there are potentially other reasons Putin is so keen for Trump to take the White House, including Trump saying that if Putin invaded one of the Baltic states he may not fulfil America’s NATO commitment to come to their defence.
Over the last few years there have been a number of allegations that President Vladimir Putin is trying to weaken the West through propaganda and cyber warfare.
Sunday Telegraph reporters allege to have seen U.S. documents labelled ‘Russian influence activity,’ which allegedly contained information on Kremlin operations in in Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, France and the Netherlands.
To be fair Russia’s not the only one attempting to influence politics around the world and CNN report that the U.S. ‘most certainly actively promotes its world view and maintains a highly advanced cyber-warfare infrastructure’.
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.