Russian President Vladimir Putin denied interfering in the 2016 U.S. election during a joint press conference with President Trump, but claimed he’s willing to facilitate the interrogation of 12 Russian officials indicted last week for hacking Democratic emails.
Putin, speaking at a Monday press conference in Finland after a two-hour meeting with Trump, denied Russia meddled in the campaign.
“Once again, President Trump mentioned the issue of the so-called interference of Russia in the American elections and I had to reiterate things,” Putin said. “I said several times, including to our personal contacts, the Russian state has never interfered and is not going to interfere into internal American affairs including the election process.”
“Any specific material, if such things arise, we are ready to analyze together,” Putin continued. “For instance, we can analyze them through the joint working group on cybersecurity, the establishment of which we discussed during our previous contacts.”
U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in January 2017 that Russia’s government was responsible for a campaign to influence the 2016 election to help Trump win. Last week, 12 Russian officials were indicted for alleged involvement in the hacking and publication of Democratic emails.
[John Bolton: Hard to believe Putin didn’t know about any effort to hack Democratic emails, servers]
Putin invited special counsel Robert Mueller to submit legal paperwork against the accused Russians, so that the Russian government can facilitate interrogations.
“Mueller, he can use [a 1999 mutual assistance] treaty as a solid foundation and send an official request to us so that we would interrogate, hold the questioning of these individuals who he believes are privy to some crimes and our enforcement are perfectly able to do the questioning and send the appropriate materials to the United States,” Putin said.
“Moreover, we can meet you halfway and make another step,” Putin added. “We can actually permit special representatives of the United States, including the members of this very commission headed by Mr. Mueller, we can let them into the country and they will be — but in this case there is another condition. This kind of effort should be a mutual one. ”
“Then we would expect that the Americans would reciprocate and they would question officials, including the officers of intelligence service of the United States whom we believe are — who have something to do with illegal actions on the territory of Russia,” he said.
Putin specifically mentioned investor Bill Browder, who he claimed was associated with potential crimes inside Russia.
Trump said at the press conference that he doubted U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusions about Russian election interference, but thanked Putin for offering to help Mueller’s investigation.
“He offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators with respect to the 12 people. I think that’s an incredible offer. Thank you,” Trump said.
[Also read: Nancy Pelosi: Trump was ‘afraid’ to mention Russian indictments to Putin]
