Russian-US relations fall victim of domestic political controversy in US / News / News agency Inforos

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/ USA / Politics / Strategic security /

Russian-US relations fall victim of domestic political controversy in US

17.07.2018 10:23

Context:

The relations between Moscow and Washington have fallen victim of domestic political controversies in the United States, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a Fox News interview on Monday, TASS reports.

When asked why US special counsel Robert Mueller, who investigates Russia’s alleged 2016 presidential election meddling, has put forward new accusations three days before the Russian-US summit, Putin replied: "I’m not interested in this issue."

"It’s internal political games of the United States. Don’t hold the relations between Russia and the United States hostage of your political struggle," he said. "And it’s quite clear to me that it is used in the internal political struggle, and it’s nothing to be proud of for American democracy to use such dirty methods in political rivalry."

In his Monday interview, Putin reiterated that Russia never interfered in the domestic political process of the United States.

"I’ve mentioned this in 2016 and I want to say it now again, and I really wish for your American listeners to listen to what I say. First of all, Russia, as a state, has never interfered with the internal affairs of the United States, let alone its elections," Putin said.

"Do you really believe that someone acting from the Russian territory could have influenced the United States and influenced the choice of millions of Americans? This is utterly ridiculous," he continued.

"The idea was about hacking an email account of a Democratic candidate. Was it some rigging of facts, was it some forgery of facts? Was this any false information planted? No, it wasn’t," Putin said. "These hackers that are being discussed… as we are being told, they hacked a certain email account and there was information about manipulations conducted within the Democratic Party to incline the process in favor of one candidate. And as far as I know, the entire party leadership resigned. They admitted the fact of their manipulations."

The Russian leader said that instead of looking for those responsible, similar manipulations with the public opinion "should stop, and an apology should be made to public."

The Russian leader avoided making any assessments on Mueller’s work.

"I don’t want to make any assessments about his operation. It is for Congress that appointed him to do this, to assess his performance," he said. "And I think court actually has some doubts about due procedure of appointing special counsel Mueller to the post that he now holds. I think that the American court now believes that is was done with an infringement of the American legislation. But that’s none of my business. Please, address it yourself."

Putin, however, said he was surprised by the fact that Mueller decided not to seek legal assistance from Russia under the bilateral 1999 treaty.

"Do you know it or not? Let the millions of Americans know about it," he said. "With the United States, we have a treaty for assistance in criminal cases, an existing treaty that exists from 1999. It’s still in force and it works efficiently."

"Why wouldn’t special counsel Mueller send us an official request within the framework of this agreement? Our investigators will be acting in accordance with this treaty, they will question each individual that the American partners are suspecting of something. Why not a single request was filed? Nobody has sent us a single formal request.

"Mueller has accused a certain private company in Russia - that is not even a very big enterprise," Putin said, adding that the company was engaged primarily in restaurant business. "And now, this company hired American lawyers and is defending its integrity and reputation in an American court. So far, American court has not discovered any trace of interference whatsoever."

On Friday, the US authorities filed charges in absentia against 12 suspected officers of the Russian military intelligence, the GRU, as part of the investigation into alleged electoral meddling by Russia in 2016.

For more than a year, Mueller has been investigating claims of Russia’s alleged interference with the 2016 US presidential election and the Russian government’s attempts to influence its outcome. US president Donald Trump and his key aides have repeatedly rejected all claims of their illegal contacts with Russian officials during the presidential campaign. Moscow has refuted those allegations on many occasions as well.

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