 "Its 'possible' Russia is trying to sway vote for Trump: Barack Obama")
US President Barack Obama has said it is 'possible' that Russia could be attempting to tip his country's presidential election towards republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Obama's remarks came after the US officials said there is strong evidence that the Democratic National Committee data breach was carried out by hackers working on behalf of the Russian intelligence.
When asked in the NBC interview whether Russians could be working to influence the contest between Trump and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, he said, "Anything's possible."
"Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin. And I think that Trump's gotten pretty favourable coverage back in Russia," CNN quoted him as saying.
Reports suggest Democrats have been alleging that Putin is seeking to alter the White House race following WikiLeaks release of damaging emails from the organisation's staff after the hack.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) breach took place around the same time as breaches occurred at the US government systems at the State Department and the White House.
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After the investigators tracked the IP addresses and other data from the Democratic National Committee, they found it matched attacks around the same time at other federal agencies.
Officials said evidence points to at least one group of hackers that is familiar to the US counter-intelligence.
The same group was reportedly involved in hacking into non-classified systems email systems at State, White House and other federal agencies.
The investigators believe the Russian intelligence is behind a wave of cyber attacks on political organisations and think tanks in Washington.
Though the timing of the release has raised suspicions among the US intelligence that this was aimed at influencing the election, WikiLeaks has denied that the Russian Government provided the documents to the group.
It, however, did not say where they came from.