Trump backtracks on U.S.-Russia cyber unit

International Desk: U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday backtracked on his push for a cyber security unit with Russia, tweeting that he did not think it could happen, only hours after promoting it following his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"The fact that President Putin and I discussed a Cyber Security unit doesn't mean I think it can happen. It can't," Trump said on Twitter. He then noted that an agreement with Russia for a ceasefire in Syria "can & did" happen.

In a series of early-morning tweets on his return from Europe, Trump said he and Putin had talked about the idea of setting up what he called "an impenetrable cyber security unit" to prevent hacking in future elections.

But senior Republican senators, including former presidential candidate John McCain, poured scorn on the idea.

Lindsey Graham, a member of the Senate's armed services committee, said on NBC that the cyber idea was "not the dumbest idea I've ever heard, but it's pretty close."

Voice dripping with sarcasm, McCain told a CBS interviewer that he was "sure that Vladimir Putin could be of enormous assistance in that effort, since he's doing the hacking."

The US and Russian sides have issued sharply conflicting accounts of Friday's meeting, with Putin saying on Saturday that Trump had been "satisfied" by his denials of any Russian interference in the polls.

The US president has previously equivocated over whether Russia did try to tilt the outcome of last November's election contest against Hillary Clinton in his favor, amid an investigation into whether members of Trump's campaign team actively colluded with Moscow.

So his public assessment that Russia did meddle has triggered calls to bring in more sanctions.

Source: Agencies



risingbd/July 10, 2017/Mukul