President Obama pledged the U.S. will retaliate against Russia for its efforts to influence the U.S. presidential election.
"I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections ... we need to take action. 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 told NPR in an interview that aired Friday morning.
U.S. intelligence officials told CNN on Thursday that Russian cyber attacks against U.S. political organizations have continued "around the clock" since the November election. While several retaliation methods are being considered, one official said action against Moscow needs to be carefully considered given the fragility of U.S.-Russian relations.
"Right now it's like the old cold cyber war and the last thing you want to do is turn it into a hot shooting war," the official said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov brushed aside the president's warning on Friday.
"Either stop talking about it or finally provide some evidence. Otherwise it looks indecent," Peskov told reporters in Tokyo, Reuters reported.
The CIA concluded last week that Russian hackers had interfered in the U.S. election process to help elect Donald Trump. The FBI has yet to back the assessment that the breaches were meant to tip the election toward Trump, citing a lack of definitive evidence.
Obama has not backed the CIA assessment. The president said he is awaiting a full report from the intelligence community before he comments on Russia's motives. He did say the cyber attacks were detrimental to Hillary Clinton's campaign.
Trump has continued to deny Russia's involvement in the breaches. The president-elect asked Thursday on Twitter why the White House waited "so long to act" if Moscow "or some other entity" had carried out cyber attacks.
While there are disagreements among intelligence officials regarding Russia's motives, all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies have attributed the election-related breaches to Russia.