Following a report in the New York Times that Russia hired fighters with links to the Taliban to kill US and UK soldiers in Afghanistan, presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has promised that: "If I'm elected president, make no mistake about it, Vladimir Putin will be confronted and we'll impose serious costs on Russia," Al Jazeera writes.
According to the NY Times, President Trump has known of the allegations for months, which was denied by White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who said: "This does not speak to the merit of the alleged intelligence but to the inaccuracy of the New York Times story erroneously suggesting that President Trump was briefed on this matter."
Russia called the report "nonsense," and the Taliban also denied its accuracy.
"This unsophisticated plant clearly illustrates the low intellectual abilities of the propagandists of American intelligence, who instead of inventing something more plausible have to make up this nonsense," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Biden had strong criticism for Trump's alleged failure to act, stating that, "Not only has he failed to sanction and impose any kind of consequences on Russia for this egregious violation of international law, Donald Trump has continued his embarrassing campaign of deference and debasing himself before Vladimir Putin," adding that it constituted a "betrayal of the most sacred duty we bear as a nation - to protect and equip our troops when we send them into harm's way."