Russia accuses U.S. of 'aggressive' actions that harm Russian security

Two days after the United States government formally accused the Russian government of waging cyber attacks to interfere with the 2016 presidential election, Moscow shot back with accusations of American aggression and Russophobia.

"We have witnessed a fundamental change of circumstances when it comes to the aggressive Russophobia that now lies at the heart of U.S. policy towards Russia," said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday. "It's not just a rhetorical Russophobia, but aggressive steps that really hurt our national interests and pose a threat to our security."

Lavrov's comments come in the context not only of the hacking charges but of disagreements over what to do in Syria, where the United States and Russia back opposite sides in a bloody civil war. At a United Nations meeting in late September, key U.S. allies France and Britain accused Russia of war crimes in Syria, while the U.S. avoided the war crimes label but termed Russian Syria policy "barbarism." On Saturday, Russia vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution introduced by France to make Aleppo, the city at the center of Syria's conflict and a target of Russian airstrikes, a no-fly zone.

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