INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Is Guccifer 2.0 Russian? FBI, Obama Administration Point To ‘Yes’

By Zachary Volkert
Published on: 08:59 PST, Jul 27, 2016

Is Guccifer 2.0 Russian? Officials across multiple government agencies and private security firms agree that the Democratic National Committee e-mail hack appears to be the work of someone based out of the former Soviet Union.

As early as Monday, The Daily Beast reported that the FBI’s investigation into the Guccifer 2.0 leak was leading authorities toward a Russian hacker. Five people familiar with the probe indicated as much, with the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, David Shedd, openly affiliating himself with this theory.

“The release of emails just as the Democratic National Convention is getting underway this week has the hallmarks of a Russian active measures campaign.”

Rocky relations between Obama and Putin may have influenced the Guccifer 2.0 leak. [Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]
Since then, several other major news outlets have quoted anonymous high-ranking sources who say that all signs are pointing to Russia in the scramble to identify Guccifer 2.0. On Tuesday, The New York Times published a story that the Obama administration now believes that the hacker was a part of Russia’s military intelligence organization, G.R.U. The Guardian further reinforced these statements with an article citing their own anonymous source on Wednesday.

Further backing up these anonymous sources, the President also appeared on NBC Tuesday evening to discuss the investigation into Guccifer 2.0. Obama repeatedly referred to Donald Trump’s own positive words about Russian president Vladimir Putin and the country of Russia. He also said that such an invasion into American politics was not out of the question, noting that such meddling from Russia had been uncovered in European elections.

“I know that experts have attributed this to the Russians. What we do know is that the Russians hack our systems, not just government systems but private systems.”

Donald Trump has addressed rumors that Russia is spying on his opponent in his favor head-on. In a series of tweets on Tuesday and Wednesday, he repeatedly made references to the Guccifer 2.0 emails — even specifically calling out NY Times for supporting the “Dem’s narrative.”

Some suspect that the Guccifer 2.0 hack was actually Russia working to undermine the Hillary Clinton campaign. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Aside from official government research into the Guccifer 2.0 hack, several private security firms have also pointed to Russian fingerprints on the breach. On Tuesday, ThreatConnect published a report culling all the data collected on the leak thus far. Its findings indicate that two known Russian hackers, Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear, are likely responsible for the attack. Many believe that that the pair is actually the GRU and FSB, Russia’s Federal Security Service.

In the fallout over the leaked e-mails that showed party leadership favoring Clinton’s candidacy over that of Bernie Sanders, many have maintained that Hillary is attempting to downplay the severity of the content by linking it to Russia. If such a smoking gun is established, it could serve as evidence that that the country has an interest in seeing her lose the election. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange stated in an interview with Democracy Now! that he intended to hurt her campaign with the Guccifer 2.0 leaks.

While the full repercussions and motivation behind the hack remain to be seen, it does appear that all official investigation is converging on one point and claiming Guccifer 2.0 is Russian.

[Image via leolintag/Shuttershock]

Share this article: Is Guccifer 2.0 Russian? FBI, Obama Administration Point To ‘Yes’
russia
More from Inquisitr