Putin: People Who Accuse Trump Of Collusion With Russia Are Disrespecting Those Who Voted For Him

Axios reports:

Russian President Vladimir Putin said accusations of President Trump’s collusion with the Russians have “inflicted damage to the domestic political situation” and shows a “lack of respect for voters” who went for Trump in 2016, the AP reports. Putin was speaking at his annual news conference in Moscow.

Why it matters: The U.S. intelligence community determined just months after the election that Russia meddled in the U.S. presidential election last year. Trump has conflicting beliefs — he has said he is with the intelligence community on the matter, but he has also said he believes Putin when Putin says Russia has not meddled.

CNN reports:

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that his US counterpart Donald Trump had made some “fairly serious achievements” since he took office and derided what he called the “espionage mania” surrounding meetings held by Trump associates with Russian officials.

Asked for his assessment of Trump’s first year in office during his annual end-of-year press conference in Moscow, Putin said that “objectively we can see a number of fairly serious achievements over the short period he’s been working.”

“This is all made up by people who oppose Trump in order to make his work look illegitimate” #Putin about collusion with Russia #PutinPresser

— Ivan Nechepurenko (@INechepurenko) December 14, 2017