Story highlights Cheney accused the Russian President of trying to influence elections in Baltic countries

He also said Putin was trying to undermine NATO

Washington (CNN) Former Vice President Dick Cheney said in a speech Monday that Russia's alleged involvement in the election could be considered "an act of war."

"There was a very serious effort made by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and his government, his organization, to interfere in major ways with our basic, fundamental democratic processes," Cheney said at the Economic Times Global Business Summit in New Delhi, India. "In some quarters that would be considered an act of war."

Cheney, who made clear that he didn't "speak for anybody else" before offering his assessment of threats posed by Putin, said to expect Russia to continue these kind of efforts "going forward" and accused the Russian President of trying to influence past elections in Baltic countries; he added. however, that Russia had not undermined the legitimacy of President Donald Trump's electoral victory.

"I would not underestimate the weight that we, as Americans, assign to the Russian attempts to interfere with our internal political processes," Cheney said.

Unlike former President George W. Bush, whom he served as vice president, Cheney said he supported Trump, and was happy to do so.

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