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<\/a>Former US Vice President Dick Cheney speaks at the Global Business Summit in the Indian capital New Delhi on March 27, 2017. (Photo by AFP)<\/p><\/div>\n
Former US Vice President Dick Cheney has said that Russia\u2019s (alleged) interference in the 2016 presidential election could be “considered an act of war.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Cheney made the remarks at the Economic Times\u2019<\/em> Global Business Summit in the Indian capital of New Delhi\u00a0on Monday, after several Democratic lawmakers also made similar statements regarding Russia and its leadership.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s not any argument at this stage that somehow the election of President Trump was not legitimate, but there\u2019s no question that there was a very serious effort made by Mr. Putin and his government, his organization, to interfere in major ways with our basic, fundamental democratic processes,\u201d he said. \u201cIn some quarters, that would be considered an act of war.\u201d<\/p>\n In a declassified report released in January, the US intelligence community concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin helped Trump win the White House, an allegation dismissed both by Moscow and Trump.<\/p>\n During his presidential campaign and afterwards, Trump repeatedly praised Putin and called for closer ties between Washington and Moscow, despite the hacking allegations.<\/p>\n Cheney warned the Trump administration against improving ties with Russia under the leadership of Putin, saying the Russia leader has operated \u201cin ways that none of his predecessors have done for the last 40 years.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI would not underestimate the weight that we as Americans assign to the Russian attempts to interfere with our internal political processes,\u201d said Cheney, who served as President George W. Bush\u2019s No. 2.<\/p>\n The US intelligence community has reportedly shared with foreign governments the classified version of their report on what they believe was a Russian plot to help Trump defeat his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.<\/p>\n The Russian president wants to \u201cundermine the perceived validity of the democratic model and try to suggest an authoritarian model is equally valid,\u201d has accused Senator Tim Kaine, Clinton\u2019s vice presidential running mate in last year\u2019s election.<\/p>\n Despite Russia\u2019s alleged cyber attacks of mostly Democratic officials during the US presidential race, several American intelligence officials, however, privately acknowledge there is no evidence that hackers altered the result of the election itself.<\/p>\n