Obama: Vladimir Putin ‘Aware of My Feelings’ After Election Hacks

President Barack Obama promises to take action in response to the Russian attempt to hack the United States presidential election, asserting that the Russians knew how angry he was about it.

“Mr. Putin is well aware about my feelings about this, because I’ve spoken to him directly about it,” Obama said in an interview with NPR, referring to the Russian president.

Obama repeated that it was “no secret” that foreign countries were constantly trying to infiltrate other countries to get intelligence, but suggested that Russia had crossed the line.

“I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections we need to take action,” Obama said. “And we will — at a time and place of our own choosing. Some of it may be explicit and publicized; some of it may not be.”

Obama suggested that the response to Russia would be measured, but did not outline a response in the five weeks he has left in office.

“We have been working hard to make sure that what we do is proportional, that what we do is meaningful,” Obama said.

He called for a set of rules for internet for the sake of avoiding a global cyber war between advanced countries.

“The whole issue of cyber security and how we play defense, how we think about offense and how we avoid an escalation of a major cyber war or a cyber arms race is something that some of our smartest folks in government and in the private sector as pending a long time thinking about,” he said.