Barack Obama vows to retaliate against Russia over election hacking scandal as US intelligence officials claim hackers acted on Putin’s orders
Obama said the US 'must and will' take action
BARACK Obama has vowed to retaliate against Russia for its suspected meddling in the US election.
Shocking reports have suggested Putin was personally tied to the Russian email hack as part of a "vendetta" against Hillary Clinton.
reports senior US intelligence officials believe with "a high level of confidence" Putin directed how Democrat material was leaked and used.
The President said in an interview with NPR News that the United States "must and will" take action against Russia, amid calls from both Republicans and Democrats for a congressional investigation into the allegations.
Obama said: "Some of it may be explicit and publicised, some of it may not be.
"But Mr. Putin is well aware of my feelings about this, because I spoke to him directly about it."
Obama added the US will respond at "a time and place of our choosing".
White House officials said it was "fact" that Russian hacking helped Donald Trump's campaign against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
According to officials, the intelligence came from diplomatic sources and spies working for US allies.
Administration officials also assailed Trump himself, claiming he must have known of Russia's interference.
Presidential spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters: "Only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorised these activities."
He added it was "obvious" Trump knew what Russia was doing during the campaign - pointing out he had encouraged Moscow during a news conference to find Clinton's missing emails.
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Trump claims he was joking when he said this, but Earnest added: "I don't think anybody at the White House thinks it's funny that an adversary of the United States engaged in malicious cyber activity to destabilise our democracy.
"That's not a joke."
A source told NBC the operation's goal was to "split off key American allies by creating the image that [other countries] couldn't depend on the U.S. to be a credible global leader anymore,".
The CIA has also assessed that Russia intervened in the election to help Donald Trump - while all 17 US intelligence agencies agreed Russia was behind the Democratic National Committee hack.
Rex Tillerson, Trump's nominee for secretary of state and CEO of ExxonMobil, has close ties with Russia - and even received a personal award from Putin.
Meanwhile, Trump himself has dismissed the CIA's conclusion that Russia meddled in the US election, creating an unparalleled rift.
Former top CIA officials say Trump's rejection of its assessment could ultimately damage crucial US policy-making - unless relations can be smoothed over.
Trump added insult to injury, they say, by both ridiculing the CIA and dismissing the need for the traditional daily presidential briefing from his top security advisers.
Former CIA director Michael Hayden told CNN: "I think the president-elect is the only prominent American that has not yet conceded that the Russians conducted a massive covert influence campaign against the United States."
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee plans to hold an open hearing in January, which will examine possible meddling by Russia in the presidential election.
There has been no specific evidence shared publicly about the extent of Putin's role or knowledge of the hackings - an allegation dismissed by the Kremlin as 'laughable nonsense'.
Meanwhile, there is no suggestion that Trump would have been defeated by Clinton on Nov. 8 if not for Russia's assistance, or evidence of tampering with vote counting.
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