Russia dismisses claim it hacked White House

Russia is rejecting reports it is responsible for hacking into White House systems that contained President Obama’s personal schedule.

“It has become a kind of sport to blame everything on Russia,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg. 

{mosads}“But the key thing is that they wouldn’t go searching for Russian submarines in the Potomac River, like it was the case in some other countries,” he added, appearing to refer to a Swedish hunt for a Russian submarine off its coast in October.

Peskov was dismissing a CNN report on Tuesday that tied last year’s hack of the White House networks to the Kremlin. While the cyberattack became public weeks after it occurred last year, new details from CNN traced the incident back to Moscow, connected it to a similar attack at the State Department and indicated it might have been more serious than appeared at first glance. 

Though hackers only gained access to unclassified networks, they nonetheless managed to get a hold of Obama’s private schedule, which contains details about meetings and phone calls that could be useful to foreign intelligence agencies.

The U.S. and Russia have repeatedly faced off in the cyber realm, and new disclosures of the recent hack appear to raise the stakes for both nations. Tensions between the two nations have mounted over the last year, amid Russia’s involvement in the conflict in Ukraine.

On Wednesday, Peskov said the Kremlin is “not inclined to demonize anyone” and is willing to cooperate with the U.S.