Russian President Vladimir Putin denied the allegations that his country was trying to influence the results of the elections in the USA, claiming instead that the US elections campaign was "run by hysteria". But the real specter of the Kremlin looms as emails from Clinton or people connected to her - stolen by hackers backed by Russian Federation, according to US intelligence officials - steadily leak out in the runup to the election 12 days away.
Clinton and her campaign have repeatedly claimed that Russian Federation was trying to rig the November election in favor of Republican nominee Donald Trump. Is the USA some kind of banana republic?
Already chilly relations between the United States and Russian Federation have deteriorated over disagreements over the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria.
Russia's foreign ministry at the weekend said that an old version of its website had been attacked after a USA hacker claimed he broke in and posted a mocking message. "Does anyone seriously think that Russian Federation can affect the choice of the American people?"
Trump has said that Putin is a stronger leader than President Barack Obama and praised him for exerting 'strong control over his country'.
"We are grateful to Russian Federation for its effective assistance in the fight against terrorism", the diplomat said.
Russia's relations with the United States have slumped to a post-Cold War nadir over the conflict in Ukraine and stalled efforts to end the Syrian war.
Putin also denied he favors Trump over Clinton, calling the campaign narrative "total nonsense" cooked up by the media, but said Trump is still in the running to become president because of the campaign he has run.
"The president would not have authorized a release of the assessment to the intelligence community if we didn't feel that it was serious and also if we didn't feel that it was certain", Kerry said.
Trump has long argued that the U.S. would be better off if it had a more productive working relationship with Russian Federation. Moscow has described the deployments as a threat to its security and pledged to respond in kind.
"Their response is to demand the evidence and to ask for it", he said. This is being said directly by USA experts. "He behaves extravagantly of course, we see this, but I think there's a reason for this".