The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Putin strongly denies any US election interference
Russian president joins with Trump in denying any wrongdoing
Russian president Vladimir Putin has denied his country interfered in the 2016 US elections.
Mr Putin said the “so-called Russian interference” in the election was brought up by US leader Donald Trump during their summit in Helsinki.
Speaking at a joint news conference alongside his US counterpart, Mr Putin said: “I had to repeat that the Russian state never interfered and does not plan to interfere in internal American electoral process.”
Mr Trump said the Russian collusion investigation has been a “disaster” for the United States and has kept America and Russia “separated”.
He reiterated that there had been “no collusion” between his campaign and the Russian government.
The US president said he ran a “clean campaign” and beat his Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton “easily”. The American president said it is a “shame” there is a cloud over his administration, but said he ran a “brilliant campaign and that’s why I’m president”.
Mr Putin said of the collusion claims that there is “no evidence when it comes to the actual facts”.
The Russian president made an “incredible offer” to allow Russian and US investigators to work together on allegations of Russian cyber attacks, Mr Trump said.
He added that Mr Putin suggested the US should provide its intelligence to the Russian military so Russia can determine the truth of what happened.
Mr Trump said he has “great confidence” in his intelligence agencies who have concluded Russia interfered in the election. However, the US president said Mr Putin was “incredibly strong and powerful today” in his contention that Russia had nothing to do with election interference.
The Russian president also rejected allegations that Moscow has collected compromising material on Mr Trump or his family.
Dismissing the claims as “sheer nonsense”, Mr Putin said he had not been aware of Mr Trump’s visit to Moscow a few years before his 2016 election.
The former KGB agent scoffed at the notion that the Russian security services try to gather incriminating materials on business figures, saying: “Do you really believe that we try to shadow every businessman?”
In general, the Russian leader said, the talks with Mr Trump took place in an “open and businesslike atmosphere” and he characterised them as “successful and useful”.
Mr Trump told the press conference that the two countries must find ways to “cooperate in pursuit of shared interests” and said a productive dialogue between America and Russia is good for both countries and “is good for the world”.