The Kremlin on Tuesday said Moscow had been the victim of U.S. cyber attacks "for years" after The New York Times pointed out that U.S. is escalating online attacks on Russia’s Power Grid.

President Vladimir Putin had "several times suggested to Washington and his American counterpart to work together in the field of cyber security. These suggestions have been rejected by our American colleagues," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

In the Times report, some of the U.S. government officials disclosed the country is stepping up digital incursions into Russia’s electric power grid in a warning to Putin and a demonstration of how the Trump administration is using new authorities to deploy cyber tools more aggressively.

Trump fought back by calling the New York Times report a fake news, and asked them to reveal sources. In a tweet, the U.S. President even described the report as a "virtual act of treason".

In response, the news organization described Trump's treason charges as "dangerous", saying they had consulted the President's own national security officials who maintained they had no concerns about the report.

The Times report cited two Trump administration officials claiming that they believed the president had not been briefed in any detail about the steps to place "implants" – software code that can be used for surveillance or attack – inside the Russian grid.

"They don't trust him," ex-CIA operative Robert Baer told CNN about reports that President Trump was kept in the dark about cyber attacks against Russia.

"He goes to Mar-a-Lago, talks about operations. He invites the Russian Ambassador into the Oval Office talks about compartmented operation... if you have anything to do with Russia in the government, whether it's FBI or the Pentagon, it's self-defensive to keep it out of the president's hands."

The Times reported that Pentagon and intelligence officials described broad hesitation to go into detail with Trump about operations against Russia for concern over his reaction. They were worried about the possibility that he might countermand or discuss it with foreign officials, as he did in 2017 when he mentioned a sensitive operation in Syria to the Russian foreign minister.