Putin blasts Trump’s opponents for using Russia as a WEAPON against US President
VLADIMIR Putin has condemned Donald Trump’s opponents for using “fabricated” stories about Russian collusion during the 2016 election as a “weapon” against him.
By HARVEY GAVIN
Express.co.uk
Sat, Nov 11, 2017
The Russian leader dismissed claims of a US-Kremlin plot to help Mr Trump win the White House as “nonsense” and again denied his government played any part in meddling with the campaign.
This comes after Mr Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was indicted on charges including conspiracy against the United States as part of an ongoing probe in to alleged Russian interference.
But speaking to reporters earlier today, Mr Putin said claims Mr Manafort was linked to Russia are “being fabricated by Trump opponents as a weapon against the US President”.
The charges against the former campaign chief, and his deputy Rick Gates, do not mention Mr Trump or Russian involvement.
And the conspiracy against the United States charge relates to allegations of tax fraud and money laundering.
But prosecutors say Mr Manafort was involved with illegal foreign lobbying on behalf of a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine from 2005 all the way up to and including 2016.
Mr Trump has been in office for less than a year but his presidency has been dogged by claims of collusion with Russians.
He says the allegations were invented by his political opponents and the mainstream media to delegitimise his election win, despite reports from his own intelligence services which concluded the Kremlin had orchestrated a wide-ranging influence operation.
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