On Friday, the U.S. government officially accused the Russian government of trying to interfere in this year’s presidential election through hacks, most notably the infamous DNC hack this past summer. Many US officials (including the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton) have previously attributed the DNC hack to Moscow, but this marks the Obama administration’s first official call-out of the Kremlin for the cyberattacks.

The 20,000 e-mails Russia allegedly stole from DNC databases, released by Wikileaks in July, seemed to reveal a conspiracy against Bernie Sanders’ campaign within the Democratic party, causing chaos as embarrassment and confusion spread throughout the committee. The turmoil proved too much for Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who gave into cries for her resignation amidst the corruption; the DNC no longer had their chairperson, and the election continued, its course changed by the leaks.

Now, the official accusation of the hacking that added a twist to an already dramatic election cycle is the freshest bruise to U.S.-Russia relations. On the same Friday as this accusation, the U.S. also called for a war crimes investigation of Russia and Syria, both of whom have been repeatedly bombing civilian areas in Aleppo, Syria (including schools and hospitals). Both the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence believe that only “Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these [hacks],” according to a joint statement released Friday.

The statement also reported that many states had seen “probing of their election-rated systems,” largely conducted via connections from private Russian servers (which cannot be attributed to the government at this time). However, the two agencies cited the decentralized nature of the voting system being used this year and the protections put in place by election officials as reassurances that no one, let alone the Russian government, would be able to alter ballot counts this November. Even so, the statement also urged state offices to contact the DHS for additional cybersecurity aid.

The White House refused to indicate whether or not the official accusations will lead to sanctions on Russia; meanwhile, the world awaits a response from Vladmir Putin, who previously denied the attacks in September. The rapidly widening gap between Russia and the United States, eerily reminiscent of the Cold War to some, will doubtless present a severe challenge to whoever wins this November.