Putin Claims Russia Proposed a Cyber War Treaty In 2015 But the Obama Admin Ignored Them (qz.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Russian president Vladimir Putin (who denies any Russian part in the hacking) claims the Obama administration ignored a proposal in 2015 that might have avoided all of this. His administration suggested working out a cyber treaty with the US but was ignored by Obama officials, Putin told film director Oliver Stone in Showtime's four-part series broadcast this week. "A year and a half ago, in fall 2015, we made proposal to our American partners that we work through these issues and conclude a treaty on the rules of behavior in this sphere," he said in Stone's documentary The Putin Interviews. "The American side was silent, they didn't reply to us."

Comments

Really?

[Dru Nemeton]

Given the environment of this admission I can't be the only one who doubts this.

Re:Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

Does anyone else remember the hack that recently crippled a bunch of countries?

The one developed by the USA?

HERPaDERRRRRRRRP

Re:Really?

[dunkindave]

Given the environment of this admission I can't be the only one who doubts this.

I don't doubt it, but I think he is spinning it. Think about the problem of attribution in the cyber realm, then think about what good such an agreement would be? All it would do is become something for groups to use to try and attack others in public while doing absolutely nothing to stop any of the cyber attacks. The administration probably "ignored it" (meaning told them to take a hike) because they saw it as a nothing-burger proposed solely for propaganda reasons.

Re:Really?

[phayes]

Treaties need to be verifiable and respected to be of any use. No possible good could have come of signing such a treaty with someone who claims that his military is just on vacation when they invade another country and that his hackers are just unemployed patriots.

Re: Really?

[UnknowingFool]

I don't doubt that Putin may have proposed it and that the Obama administration turned it down. After all who here really believes that Putin would honor such a treaty?

A treaty only makes sense between equal players

[Anonymous Coward]

and the US arrogantly thought that they were better hackers.

Blaming Obama?

[HangingChad]

You know Putin didn't think that talking point up on his own. The guy who has changed his story three times about Russian hacking now tries out a new strategy.

We can't stay united with people who think it's okay for Russians, or any country, to meddle in our elections...as long as the meddling is working for them. If this was Hillary Clinton working with the Russians the hypocrite right would be burning the country down.

Re: Blaming Obama?

[Mashiki]

Oh here we are. Are you the pro-russian troll, or the teabagger obsessed with the Clintons? It has become so hard to tell these days.

See that ID? Yeah. So what are you? A paid shareblue poster trying to cover up for the Clintons. Maybe you can explain why when Clinton lost the election that the international arm of the clinton foundation shut down almost right away as the donation stream abruptly stopped. Would you like to explain why when people wanted to talk with the Obama administration they'd be stonewalled, then suddenly when they made large contributions to it they had access. And they used it to directly gain access to special favors at the state department.

Why talk about the topic at hand when we can talk about a completely different topic?

Maybe you should ask the parent poster.

It's getting old and us moderates are tired of the idiots on both sides. Before you go there (I know you will), no, I ddidnt vote for the candidate you likely call Killary.

If you're an actual moderate, then you wouldn't be lashing out when someone points out that she was the worse candidate and likely the one that would have caused another world war. You were the one who said that not me.

Re:Blaming Obama?

[nucrash]

At this point, if you want to point out all the flaws of Hillary Clinton and the radical Democrats who assaulted or shot at Trump Supporters or GOP members, feel free to also point out the racists who were incensed about the removal of Confederate statues or Samuel Houston's statue which is even more entertaining because he despised the Confederacy. Feel free to also point out the Trump supporters who shot and killed various people for "looking" Muslim. I own the fact that yes there was Bernie Supporter who shot up a GOP team. That's sad and I don't know where he managed to get the message that violently attacking GOP officials was okay. Violently attacking anyone is not okay. Yet the GOP needs to own their own extremist and that's something they don't care to do. Most of the time they don't acknowledge this happening. I think the most we managed to get out of Trump was a, "Stop It" and that was after he was questioned and begged. Bernie has apologized time and again over this single individual.

Re:Blaming Obama?

[butzwonker]

How do you say 'fake news' in Russian?

Prawda - now known as "Russia Today".

Re:Blaming Obama?

[Mashiki]

Scrubbing of history? I support the removal of statues of people who fought a war to preserve the institution of slavery. ...

So you are supporting the scrubbing of history by removing those statues. You should really dust off a history book, because slavery was actually a very small part of it. There was far more to the issue then just that. If you don't want to look like a book burner, perhaps you'd be better off wanting to show the entire history of it? Which do you think is more likely true: That bigotry and racism grows when exposed, or when it's suppressed and hidden from sight. Where there is no counter arguments against it.

The Confederacy is one of the greatest symbols of our shameful past, where we thought it was fine for a man to keep another man like property. It neither needs to or deserves to be honored, and those statues were a casual, everyday "fuck you" to non-whites, a constant reminder that for many, they are not welcome even after 150 years.

And burying that history helps who? So does this also apply to say WWII memorials? How about Nazi memorials? Yeah, burying history helps nobody. Just like trying to pull "all whitey's are racists because of slavery" helps no one.

So what?

[chispito]

Putin right now: We do not hack other nations, those are independent patriotic Russians.

Putin if he signed a treaty: We do not hack other nations, those are independent patriotic Russians.

Contradiction?

[Edward Nardella]

So, Russia was not involved but if there was a treaty they would not have been involved and they would not have done the hacking they did not do.

Re:Thank goodness we have Trump now

[Mashiki]

So how are the republicans "putin-friendly" when they not only maintain sanctions, but are following Obama's same playbook. You do realize that Russia's main concern was Hillary would do something that would trigger WWIII because she was so incredibly hawkish that it made neocons blush. You can even see that in her emails, where she wanted to directly bomb russians in Syria, and start seizing assets from them. Pretty easy to figure out why the Kremlin was cheering when Trump was elected, it might just have something to do with that non-war. And if you don't think it wouldn't be nuclear? Look at it this way, the US has double the tonnage in the ocean of Russia and China combined. Plus better and closer force projection for troops. That means the only option would be a first strike using nuclear or limited nuclear exchange in the hopes of winning.

Re: Thank goodness we have Trump now

[Mashiki]

Regular formal communication, presence in the Oval Office, return of seized compounds, softer rhetoric.... oh, wait, you're a troll...

So you're saying that the US shouldn't have formal communication with a country that has a massive nuclear arsenal? Remember what happened the last time that went on, and the only reason we're having this discussion is because the USSR captain refused to pull the trigger. You mean the same presence that other nations have? The one that Obama pulled because reasons. So you want to argue that a Russia surrounded by NATO bases, shouldn't have some of their dignity back under a new administration. Are you that eager for a war or is it something else?

Re:Thank goodness we have Trump now

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes but you're forgetting one thing: Hillary has a vagina. And that's just downright progressive. And diverse. Progressive and diverse both sound like good things. How can two things that sound good be bad? Do you think women are bad? You must if you don't want Hillary, A WOMAN, to have whatever she wants. You're basically a nazi, aren't you?

-Gawker

Re:That's a really nice Internet you have there...

[HornWumpus]

Do you realize how big the NSA is?

American three letter agencies spend more money 'cyber spying' on each other than the total Russian cyber budget. Which isn't to say the Russians don't have talent or that any amount of money will turn a paper pusher into a hacker.

The Americans didn't respond because they thought they were miles ahead. Recent releases show they _could_ just own anyone with any connected consumer device (e.g. router, PC, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux based etc etc).

I'm thinking the OpenBSD guys are acting kind of smug, but where they owned too? I can't keep up.