Biden vows Putin will 'pay a price' for US election meddling

President Joe Biden says Russian President Vladimir Putin will face consequences for directing efforts to swing the 2020 US presidential election to Donald Trump, and that they would come soon.

"He will pay a price," Biden told ABC News in an interview broadcast on Wednesday (local time). Asked what the consequences would be, he said, "You'll see shortly."

A US intelligence report earlier this week bolstered longstanding allegations that Putin was behind Moscow's election interference, an accusation Russia called baseless.

At the same time, Biden noted that "there's places where it's in our mutual interest to work together" such as renewing the START nuclear agreement, adding that the two leaders have a known history.

"I know him relatively well," Biden said, adding that "the most important thing dealing with foreign leaders in my experience ... is just know the other guy."

Of Putin, Biden said he does not think the Russian leader has a soul. Asked if he thought Putin was a killer, he told ABC: "I do."

Biden defeated Trump in the election and took office two months ago.

What did the report say?

The 15-page report, released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, added heft to longstanding allegations that some of Trump's top lieutenants were playing into Moscow's hands by amplifying claims made against then-candidate Biden by Russian-linked Ukrainian figures in the run-up to the 3 November election.

It also added new findings that Putin either oversaw or at least approved of the election meddling to benefit Trump.

Washington is expected to impose sanctions on Moscow as soon as next week because of the allegations, three sources said on condition of anonymity.

The findings about Putin's role are likely to receive particular attention given the report's conclusions that Russia-backed figures such as Ukrainian parliamentarian Andriy Derkach enlisted unnamed US political figures in their campaign to smear Biden and his son Hunter.

The report named Derkach, who met Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani in 2019, as someone whose movements were tracked, if not directed, by Putin.

"Putin had purview over the activities of Andriy Derkach," the report said. "Other senior officials also participated in Russia's election influence efforts - including senior national security and intelligence officials who we assess would not act without receiving at least Putin's tacit approval."

US intelligence agencies and former Special Counsel Robert Mueller previously concluded that Russia also interfered in the 2016 US election to boost Trump's candidacy with a campaign of propaganda aimed at harming his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.

Mueller found extensive contacts between Trump's campaign and Russia. Trump while president also faced questions about ties by his associates with Russia and Russia-linked figures in Ukraine.

The US House of Representatives impeached Trump in 2019 - the first of two times - on charges arising from his request that Ukraine investigate the Bidens.

The US intelligence report also found other foreign attempts to sway American voters in 2020 including a "multi-pronged covert influence campaign" by Iran intended to undercut Trump. As president, Trump pulled the United States out of a multilateral nuclear deal with Iran and imposed fresh sanctions.

The report also punctured a counter-narrative pushed by Trump's allies that China was interfering on Biden's behalf, concluding that Beijing "did not deploy interference efforts."

Moscow, Beijing and Tehran routinely deny allegations of cyberespionage and election interference.

The intelligence report assessed with high confidence that Russian leaders "preferred that former President Trump win re-election despite perceiving some of his administration's policies as anti-Russia."

A key role was played by another man with Russian intelligence ties, Konstantin Kilimnik, according to the report. It said Kilimnik and Derkach met and gave materials to Trump-linked people to push for formal investigations, and Derkach released four audio recordings seeking to suggest Biden tried to protect his son Hunter from a corruption probe in Ukraine. Giuliani was among those promoting such claims.

Kilimnik was an associate of Paul Manafort, who served as Trump's 2016 campaign chairman. Trump pardoned Manafort last year for a criminal conviction stemming from Mueller's investigation.

Russian agents also tried to hack subsidiaries of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, "likely in an attempt to gather information related to President Biden's family," it said. Hunter Biden had served on Burisma's board.

Sanctions

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on whether sanctions would be imposed on Russia as early as next week, which was first reported by CNN.

Asked about CNN's report, a US official said Biden had "been clear" Washington would respond to destabilising Russian actions and noted US steps to respond to Russia's alleged use of a chemical weapon against Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

"There will be more soon," said the official on condition of anonymity.

Two sources told Reuters the sanctions could address the cyber hack blamed on Russia that used US company SolarWinds Corp to penetrate US government networks as well as reports Russia offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Moscow has denied involvement in the hack and brushed off the bounties allegations.

What did Russia say?

"The document prepared by the US intelligence community is another set of baseless accusations against our country for interfering in American domestic political processes," Russia's embassy in the United States said in a statement on Facebook.

"The conclusions of the report on Russia conducting influence operations in America are confirmed solely by the confidence of the intelligence services of their self-righteousness. No facts or specific evidence of such claims were provided."

It also accused the US of seeking to besmirch Russia's image and of blaming others for its own problems.

"We state that Washington continues to practice 'megaphone diplomacy, with the main goal to maintain a negative image of Russia. To blame external players for destabilising the situation inside the country," the embassy said in the same statement.

"This attitude of the administration hardly corresponds to our proposed equal and mutually respectful expert dialogue in search of solutions to the most pressing issues. Washington's actions do not lead to the normalisation of bilateral relations."

In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it had called its ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, back to Moscow to discuss the future of Russia's relationship with the US.

The move was designed to ensure bilateral ties did not degrade irreparably, it said.

"The main thing for us is to determine the ways in which the difficult Russian-American relations that Washington has led into a dead end in recent years could be rectified," spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement.

"We are interested in preventing their irreversible degradation if the Americans recognise the risks involved."

- Reuters