Putin says they know who destroyed the aid convoy in Aleppo

Putin: We know who destroyed aid convoy in Aleppo, Syria

RT,

23 October, 2016

The attack on a UN humanitarian aid convoy near the Syrian city of Aleppo last month, which Washington has blamed on Russia, was actually carried out by one of the terrorist groups present in the area, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.

“It was one of the terrorist groups. And we know that, say, the Americans know it too, but prefer to take a different position, to falsely accuse Russia. This is not helping,” Putin said at an economic forum in Moscow.

The aid convoy was attacked on the night of September 20. The International Committee of the Red Cross reported 20 civilians killed and 18 vehicles destroyed.

READ MORE: ‘It’s different’: US justifies Saudi ‘self-defense’ in Yemen, slams Russia’s actions in Syria

The Pentagon alleged that the convoy was destroyed from the air and that Russian warplanes were present in the area, concluding that it was a Russian strike that was responsible.

Russia denied the accusation and said a US drone was monitoring the convoy, so Washington should know the truth about the attack.

Putin also commented on the disagreement at the UN Security Council that eventually led to the cancellation of his visit to France. Paris indicated that it wouldn’t be comfortable hosting the Russian leader after Moscow blocked a resolution it had submitted.

No sign US is seriously battling Al-Nusra; calls not to fly over Aleppo suspicious – Lavrov

 “It’s not our partners who should take offense over us vetoing the French resolution. I’d say we are the offended party here,” Putin said.

He said French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault had raised the idea of the resolution when he visited Moscow last week. Ayrault was told the draft pinned too much blame for the Aleppo violence on the Syrian government, but that if France made some amendments, the document could still pass.

However, as Ayrault visited Washington on the eve of the UNSC meeting, no changes were made to the draft and France also "accused Russia of all the deadly sins," Putin said.

"Knowing our position, and not discussing it with us, they didn't chuck in the resolution so it would pass, but [did it] to get the veto. What for? To exacerbate the situation and to whip up anti-Russian hysteria in media under their control, and to deceive their own citizens," he dded.

The situation in Syria will be discussed on Saturday in Lausanne, Switzerland, where top diplomats from the US, Russia, Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia are to gather for a meeting.

Putin Slams Russia Hacking Accusation: "Just A Ploy To Divert Attention From The Contents"

Zero Hedge,

11 October, 2016

After Russia's foreign minister trolled the US election, describing it as a "pussy galore" moment, when in an interview with CNN's Christine Ammanpour, he sad "there are so many pussies around your presidential campaign on both sides that I prefer not to comment," his boss, Vladimir Putin also went on the record to address the allegation by US intelligence services which last Friday officially accused the Kremlin of coordinating the ongoing cyberattacks targeting democrats, and said that the scandal that hacking scandal has not been in Moscow's interests and both sides in the U.S. election campaign are just using Russia to score points.

The Russian leaders' statement comes one day after the White House did not reveal how if at all, it would respond to "Russia's hacking", but said it would consider a variety of responses to the alleged hacks.

Putin accused the US of "starting this hysteria, saying that this (hacking) is in Russia's interests. But this has nothing to do with Russia's interests," in a speech during a business forum in Moscow.

He added that the accusations were a ploy to divert U.S. voters' attention at a time when public opinion was being manipulated. "Everyone is talking about 'who did it' (the hacking)," said Putin. "But is it that important? The most important thing is what is inside this information."

Well, yes, but... oh look, Trump talking about grabbing pussy

So yeah, it worked.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Kremlin it took a negative view of White House statements about a planned "proportional" response to the alleged cyber attacks.

Putin complained that all sides in the U.S. presidential race were misusing rhetoric about Russia for their own ends, but said Moscow would work with whoever won the election "if, of course, the new U.S. leader wishes to work with our country".

"About a decade ago, they wouldn't mention Russia at all, because it was not even worth talking about, such a third-rate regional power and not interesting at all. Now Russia is problem number one in the entire election campaign," said Putin.

“They made Russia a priority issue of the entire campaign. Everyone is talking about Russia. It may be flattering, but only partially. Because all participants of this process indulge in anti-Russian rhetoric and poison the relations between our states,” Putin said. “This is bad for both our countries and the international community.”

“We are concerned with the deterioration of Russian-American relations, but that was not our choice, we never wanted that. On the contrary, we want to have friendly relations with the US, a great country and a leading economy,” Putin said.

Considering there is still just under a month left in this election, something tells us it will get much more "pleasant" for Russia, as the process of US devolution to global laughing stock, which is set to culminate on November, is complete.