Russia has no hand in Skripal case, US elections, killing Syrians – Putin to Fox News
After his latest meeting with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin granted an interview to US television channel Fox News. Host Chris Wallace asked the Russian president many sharp and unexpected questions.
The conversation was Putin’s first interview with U.S. media since June 2017.
In the interview set to air on Special Report, Wallace pressed the Russian president about the summit with president Donald Trump, the hacking of the 2016 election and other contentious issues like NATO, Syria and Ukraine.
Among other questions, Wallace asked Putin why his political opponents were constantly under attack. In particular, the journalist recalled the murder of Anna Politkovskaya and the attempt on former Russian intellingence officer Sergei Skripal.
“Well, first of all, all of us have plenty of political rivals. I’m pretty sure president Trump has plenty of political rivals,” Putin answered.
Wallace shot back: “But they don’t end up dead.”
“Haven’t presidents been killed in the United States?” Putin replied. “Have you forgotten about — well, has [president John F.] Kennedy been killed in Russia or in the United States? Or [Dr. Martin Luther] King? What — and what happens to the clashes between police and, well, civil society, and some — several ethnic groups? Well, that’s something that happens on the U.S. soil. All of us have our own set of domestic problems.”
Speaking about poisoning the Skripals, Putin stated that there was no compelling evidence of Russia’s involvement in the case.
Wallace also asked Putin about the mission in Syria and deaths of innocent men, women and children.
Putin replied: “You know, when there [is] warfare going on — and this is the worst thing that can happen [for] humankind – [victims] are inevitable, and there will always be a question of who’s to blame. I think it is the terrorist groups who are to blame who destabilized the situation in the country.”
Putin reiterated that Russia had never interfered with the internal affairs of the United States, and called the idea of its influencing the choice of millions of Americans ‘utterly ridiculous’.
Moreover, according to Putin, it is the West that staged protests in Ukraine in 2014.
“You asked me about Crimea and Ukraine. It’s not us who organized a military coup and the armed change of power in violation of the Constitution of Ukraine, it’s not us who paid bounties to the rebels,” he said.
belsat.eu, via Fox News
