US President Barack Obama strongly suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally oversaw the computer hacks of Democratic Party emails that American intelligence officials said were aimed at helping Republican Donald Trump win the 8 November election.
At a pre-Christmas press conference, Mr Obama levelled a fierce attack against Russia, calling it a smaller and weaker country than the United States that "does not produce anything that others want to buy, except oil and gas and arms".
His quip underscored what Mr Obama called the "sadly deteriorated" relationship between Washington and Moscow, who are at also odds over the civil war in Syria.
Asked whether Mr Putin was personally involved in the hacks, Mr Obama said: "This happened at the highest levels of the Russian government" and that "not much happens in Russia without Vladimir Putin".
But Mr Obama added that he also wanted to give US intelligence more time to produce a report that is due before he leaves office on 20 January and Mr Trump is sworn in as his successor.
He said: "The intelligence I've seen gives me great confidence that the Russians carried out this hack; the hack of the DNC (Democratic National Committee) and the hack of John Podesta," who was the top campaign aide to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Mr Obama said he warned Mr Putin in September to stop meddling in American political campaigns, telling his Russian counterpart to "cut it out" during a face-to-face encounter in China at a G20 meeting.
Russia has denied US accusations that it hacked the emails of Democrats, news coverage of which often distracted from Mrs Clinton's campaign arguments.
The emails contained embarrassing tidbits, including exchanges between top aides to Mrs Clinton who were shocked about the extent of her use of a private server to write emails while secretary of state.
