Mueller's indictments 'big distraction' ahead of Trump-Putin summit
The US Justice Department’s indictments of 12 Russian intelligence officials in connection with the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election are “a big distraction” from what President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir should discuss in their upcoming summit, says a political writer and activist.
“In reality these indictments won’t make a difference; these people are in Russia, they probably had no plan to go to the United States,” Adam Garrie, director at Eurasia Future, said in an interview on Friday.
All the 12 defendants were members of the GRU, a Russian Federation intelligence agency within the Russian military, the Justice Department announced on Friday.
The indictments were part of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. The Russians were accused of being involved in "sustained effort" to hack Democrats' emails and computer networks during the 2016 election.
"There is no allegation in this indictment that any American citizen committed a crime," Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said at a news conference. "There is no allegation that the conspiracy altered the vote count or changed any election result."
Garrie told Press TV that US authorities often target people with organizations connected to the public sector in countries the US has disagreements with. “And they put them on sanctions list, no travel list or in this case indict them.”
“What’s being presented as a bombshell is no different than what frequently happens when these people are named in terms of sanctions or no fly list or the other things that usually happen to people who in most cases have no asset abroad or have no plans of travelling abroad,” the analyst noted.
“In other words, it’s simply another big distraction from the actual important matters that Trump and Putin need to talk about when they meet in a few days time,” he added.
Trump is scheduled to meet his Russian counterpart in Helsinki on Monday.
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