According to the cybersecurity specialist Crowdstrike and The Guardian, at least two groups of Russian hackers have “been lurking” in the computer systems of the Democrat National Committee (DNC) “since at least last summer.” However the DNC’s Trump dossier was only leaked to the media in June 2016. What happened?
Perhaps it was the Democrats themselves, after all, who leaked the file — an attempt at a (rather lame, let’s admit it) smear job. Perhaps the Kremlin, as I have argued before, does not really want Trump to win. It’s also possible that there is no consensus on the preferred candidate among the “towers” of the Kremlin.
But it all depends on how much dirt Moscow has on either candidate and whether it is planning to use it to influence the new president through blackmail or to prevent the less agreeable candidate from getting elected. If it goes for the latter option, assuming it did not waste the golden opportunity graciously offered by Secretary Clinton in 2013, things can finally get really interesting. Stay tuned but don’t hold your breath.