Russian President Vladimir Putin said he “couldn’t care less” if Russian nationals attempted to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election because they “do not represent the government.”
“I don’t care,” Putin told NBC’s Megyn Kelly in an interview that aired Friday. “I couldn’t care less. because they do not represent the government.”
“They do not represent the interest of the Russian state,” he added.
WATCH: Russian President Vladimir Putin tells @MegynKelly he “couldn’t care less” about Russians allegedly interfering in U.S. elections because they “do not represent the [Russian] government.” #ConfrontingPutin pic.twitter.com/2EY43HXS2B
— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 10, 2018
Putin raised the prospect of the election meddlers not even being Russians. He told Kelly that for all he knew, they were Ukrainians or Jews who possessed Russian citizenship. “Maybe it was the Americans who paid them for this work,” Putin added. “How do you know? I don’t know.”
Putin also hinted he would not necessarily try to prevent interference from happening in the future. “We do not interfere in the private lives of our people, and we can’t prevent them from expressing their points of view, including on the Internet,” Putin said.
Despite Putin’s claims, the members of the U.S. intelligence community released a report in January 2017 that determined with “high confidence” that Putin approved an “influence campaign” during the 2016 election that would assist Trump and negatively impact his opponent, Hillary Clinton. “Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump,” the report said.
More recently, Mueller’s office indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities for meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The indictment and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing Mueller’s probe, announced last month that the meddling started in May 2014 and that the Russian groups created posts, ads, and organized events on social media platforms by using names of Americans and other entities.
In a previously aired clip of Kelly’s interview with Putin, the Russian leader brushed off the indictments as “yelling and hollering in the United States Congress.” He also 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,” he said.
The indictment came amid Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and the Russian government.
