Hillary Clinton has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering a cyberattack against her during the US election as revenge because of his "personal beef" with her.

The defeated Democratic presidential nominee made the remarks during a closed-door gathering of campaign donors in New York City on Thursday night, according to an audio recording obtained by The New York Times.

Image: Mr Putin and Mrs Clinton during a meeting in September 2012

"We're also learning more every day about the unprecedented Russian plot to swing this election," she said.

"Vladimir Putin, himself, directed the covert cyberattacks against our electoral system, against our democracy, apparently because he has a personal beef against me."

The former secretary of state attributed Mr Putin's personal vendetta against her to national protests following her 2011 accusation that Russia's parliamentary elections were fraudulent.


"Putin publicly blamed me for the outpouring of outrage by his own people. And that is the direct line between what he said back then and what he did in this election," she said.

Obama: I told Putin to 'cut out' the hacking

"He is determined to not only score a point against me - which he did - but also to undermine our democracy.

"This is not just an attack against me and my campaign, although that may have added fuel to it, this is an attack against our country."

The recording emerged as Barack Obama revealed he had a showdown with Mr Putin over the alleged bid to influence the US election, telling him: "Cut it out or face serious consequences."

Speaking at his White House news conference, Mr Obama threatened retaliation against those plotting cyberattacks against US.

He told reporters: "Our goal continues to be to send a clear message to Russia, and others, to not do this."

And without detailing what a US response might look like, he warned: "We can do stuff to you."

Image: Mr Putin met Mr Obama during the World Climate Change Conference in China

He described meeting Mr Putin face-to-face.

"In early September when I saw President Putin in China, I felt that the most effective way to ensure that that didn't happen was to talk to him directly and tell him to cut it out and there were going to be serious consequences if he didn't," he said.

He added: "And in fact we did not see further tampering of the election process."

The President said he was most concerned that the Russians could hack into the election process itself and affect the outcome.

But that didn't happen, he said.

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While not directly pointing the finger at Mr Putin, he blamed "the highest level" of the Russian government for the hacks.

He noted that not much happens in Russia without Mr Putin signing it off.

He took aim at Republicans praising Mr Putin, saying: "Ronald Reagan would roll over in his grave."

:: Russia hits back at 'scurrilous' White House cyberhacking claims

The President also unleashed a string of putdowns suggesting Russia is "a weaker country" than the United States.

But he warned: "They can impact us if we abandon our values."

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Hacking should be tackled on a bi-partisan basis, Mr Obama said, and cyber investigations should not become a "political football".

Mr Obama said he and the intelligence services did not assign motives at the time.

"In this hyper-partisan atmosphere, at a time when my primary concern was making sure that the integrity of the election process was not in any way damaged, at a time when anything that was said by me or anyone in the White House would immediately be seen through a partisan lens, I wanted to make sure that everyone understood that we were trying to play this thing straight," he said.