By SS
Seeds: In October, the US government announced that Russia hacked the Democratic National Convention (DNC) which resulted in the public release of thousands of emails, including emails that some say damaged both the party as a whole and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Evidence was found that Russia was also funding outlets that spread fake news, another aspect that some say contributed to President-elect Trump’s win. Also, the CIA has concluded that parts of the RNC and groups who fund both directly and indirectly the Republican party were hacked.
Core: US intelligence agencies have found that Russian agents, on orders by President Putin, were behind the hacks, specifically seeking to injure Hillary Clinton's image and help swing the vote in President-elect Trump's favor. Within the last two weeks President Obama ejected 35 suspected Russian intelligence operatives and imposed sanctions on two of Russia's intelligence services as a strike back to this news.
Skin: President-elect Trump and his team have repeatedly denied that validity of the assessment and probes requested by many of the House members calling it “ridiculous.” He recently acknowledged that the claims must be true. Representatives from Russia continually deny these claims.
Leaves: Senior aides to President-elect Trump have stated that he is considering actions against Russia in light of this news.President Obama, in his last few weeks
Food For Thought: Do you think that Russia-US relations will warm or worsen? Do you think that Russia's so-called "influence campaign" worked?
Still Hungry? CNN, Reuters, npr, Wall Street Journal, The New York Times (1), The New York Times (2) BBC
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