Russian President Vladimir Putin said the U.S. needs to present hard evidence of Russians meddling in U.S. elections, and until then, he is dismissing 2016 interference as nothing but “yelling and hollering” by American politicians.
“I have to see first what they’ve done. Give us materials, give us information,” Putin told NBC’s Megyn Kelly in an interview that aired Friday.
Last month, 13 Russians and 3 Russian-linked companies were indicted as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation for allegedly meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election with the stated goal of “spreading distrust towards candidates and the political system in general.”
Brushing off the indictments, Putin described the accusations as “yelling and hollering in the United States Congress” and suggested that U.S. officials should file an official request with Russia’s general prosecutor.
“We can not respond to that if they do not violate Russian laws,” the Russian president explained.
“With all due respect for you personally, with all due respect for Congress, you must have people with legal degrees,” he continued. “One-hundred percent you do, and people who are well-educated, who must understand that we, Russia, cannot prosecute anyone if they have not violated Russian law. If you do not have a legal degree, I can explain to you.”
When Kelly explained that she did have a law degree and practiced law before entering journalism, Putin said that she should “understand” that Russian officials need an official request from the U.S. before taking on their own investigation.
“Give us a document. Give us an official request,” he insisted.
While the U.S. is currently working on extraditing the Russian nationals to prosecute them, it is unlikely the Russian government will hand them over, and President Trump has not indicated whether his administration plans to put pressure on the Kremlin to extradite them.
The recent indictments offered no evidence that the Russians altered the outcome of the presidential election or that any American citizen participated in the meddling.
A declassified report from the intelligence community published in January 2017 stated a conclusion with “high confidence” that Putin authorized the meddling campaign on the 2016 election, which included the hacking of Democratic officials and political figures.
