President Barack Obama on Thursday vowed to "take action" against Russia for the country's alleged meddling in the U.S. presidential election.
"I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections … we need to take action," Obama said in an interview that aired Friday on NPR. "And we will – at a time and place of our own choosing. Some of it may be explicit and publicized; some of it may not be."
The comments are Obama's most candid yet on the issue, which gained momentum after Republican candidate Donald Trump won the presidency last month. Intelligence officials believe high-ranking Russian officials were involved in hacks into the private email of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's adviser, John Podesta, and the Democratic National Committee.
Authorities have not provided any evidence publicly to support the allegation and Russian officials have denied any involvement in the attacks.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov on Friday morning told the Interfax news agency that, "It is necessary to either stop talking about it, or finally produce some evidence," The New York Times reported.
"Otherwise, it all begins to look quite unseemly," Peskov said.
Obama told NPR that he has ordered intelligence officials to review the cyberattacks and that he hopes to have a definitive White House report on the intrusions completed and released before Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.
"There are still a whole range of assessments taking place among the agencies," Obama said.
Senior intelligence officials have concluded with "high confidence" that Russia intervened in the presidential election with the goal of bolstering Trump's campaign.
The president-elect has consistently slammed the reports as partisan and fictitious.
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