Putin: We all have political rivals, even Trump... TV interviewer: But they don’t end up dead
Russian president grilled over Novichok
VLADIMIR Putin was left squirming when a TV journalist grilled him on air about why those who oppose him end up being murdered or attacked.
Chris Wallace of US station Fox News also pressed the Russian president on claims he was behind the attempted Novichok assassination of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julia in Salisbury.
Putin again denied Moscow provided the nerve agent used in the attack and said: “All of us have plenty of political rivals. I’m pretty sure President Trump has plenty of political rivals.”
Tough-talking Wallace cut in and declared: “But they don’t end up dead.”
Flustered Putin replied that US presidents have been assassinated on American soil. He added: “All of us have our own set of domestic problems.” The president then accused Britain of failing to provide evidence Moscow poisoned former Russian spy Skripal, 67, and 33-year-old Yulia in March.
Novichok in a bottle said to be discarded from that attack killed mum Dawn Sturgess, 44, of Amesbury, Wilts, and has left her partner Charlie Rowley, 45, seriously ill in hospital.
Putin added: “Since you’ve mentioned the Skripal case, we would like to get at least some evidence about it. But nobody gives it to us. We heard two more people suffered from the same nerve agent called Novichok.
“What kind of package? What kind of bottle? What’s the formula?
“Maybe there are reasons within the United Kingdom but nobody wants to look at the issue now, they just see the ungrounded accusations. Our relationship is worse because of this.” The interview came after Putin’s summit with Mr Trump in Helsinki on Monday. He insisted Moscow did not influence the US presidential election race, which Mr Trump won. But Wallace tried to hand Putin the indictment papers of 12 Russians accused of interference. He refused to take them. Trump yesterday faced more criticism at home for siding with Putin over claims Russia meddled in the US election, while ripping into US intelligence chiefs over their probe into the scandal. More than 25 members of his own party attacked him, some branding him a traitor. Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger tweeted: “I saw your press conference with Putin. It was embarrassing. You stood there like a little wet noodle, like a little fan boy. I was asking myself when are you going to ask him for an autograph.” But the president brushed off the criticism and bragged: “While I had a great meeting with NATO, raising vast amounts of money, I had an even better meeting with Vladimir Putin.”