Trump opponents ‘made up’ vote interference by Russia, says Putin

Moscow, December 14 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday the United States was in the grip of a fabricated spymania whipped up by President Donald Trump’s opponents but he thought battered US-Russia relations would recover one day.

Putin, who said he was on first name terms with Trump, also praised the US President for what he said were his achievements. “I’m not the one to evaluate the president’s work. That needs to be done by the voters, the American people,” Putin told his annual news conference in Moscow, in answer to a question.

Trump took office in January, saying he was keen to mend ties which had fallen to a post-Cold War low. But since then, ties have soured further after US intelligence officials said Russia meddled in the presidential election, something Moscow denies.

Congress is also investigating alleged contacts between the Trump election campaign and Russian officials amid allegations that Moscow may have tried to exercise improper influence.

Putin dismissed those allegations and the idea of a Russia connection as “fabricated.” He shrugged off accusations that Russia’s ambassador to the US had done something wrong by having contacts with Trump campaign figures saying it was “international practice” for diplomats to try to have contacts with all candidates in an election.

“What did someone see that was egregious about this? Why does it all have to take on some tint of spymania?,” said Putin. “This is all invented by people who oppose Trump to give his work an illegitimate character. The people who do this are dealing a blow to the state of (US) domestic politics,” he added, saying the accusations were disrespectful to US voters.

Moscow understood that Trump’s scope for improving ties with Russia was limited by the scandal, said Putin, but remained keen to try to improve relations.

Washington and Moscow had many common interests, he said, citing the Middle East, North Korea, international terrorism, environmental problems and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. However, Putin lashed out at US policy on North Korea, warning a US strike there would have catastrophic consequences. — Reuters

Russian President’s end-of-year news conference

On Trump

“It’s not for me to evaluate the President’s work. This needs to be done by the voter, the American people. We are objectively seeing that there have been some major accomplishments, even in the short time he has been working. Look at how the markets have grown. This speaks to investors’ trust in the American economy. It speaks to what President Trump is doing in this sphere. With all due respect to Trump’s opponents, this is an objective fact.”

On mending Russia-US relations

“You have to ask him if he (Trump) has such a desire, none at all or whether it has disappeared. I hope that he has such a desire. After all, in the interest of the American people, we are normalizing our relations and will develop (them) and overcome common threats. We know them well: terrorism, ... finding solutions to environmental problems, fighting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, overcoming crises in different regions of the world, including the Middle East, the North Korean issue and so on.”

On Eastern Ukraine

“The effectiveness of the Minsk agreements is low, most of all because of the position of the authorities in Kiev. There is no desire to fulfil the Minsk agreements, there is no desire to begin a genuine political process.”

On Syria

“All good-willed people around the world need to understand that if we will not solve this problem together, it will become their problem. One of the sources of terrorism is low levels of education and material comfort… Syria cannot manage this on its own.”

Putin: Opposition will destabilise country

• In one of the most dramatic moments of the news conference, Ksenia Sobchak (pic), a TV personality who has said she plans to run against Putin in a presidential election in March, asked him about what she said was the lack of political competition
• In particular, Sobchak asked about the case of opposition leader Alexei Navalny who looks unlikely to be allowed to run in the election due to what Navalny says is a trumped up criminal case
• Putin has been in power, either as president or prime minister, since the end of 1999. Putin, who polls suggest will be comfortably re-elected, warned that candidates like Navalny would destabilise Russia and usher in chaos if elected