Russian President, Vladimir Putin, dismissed allegations regarding the Kremlin maintaining a dossier of damning information about American President Elect Donald Trump for use in black mail on Tuesday, referring to the idea as “rubbish.”
Vladimir Putin, along with the Russian intelligence community, were said to have had long-standing ties with Donald Trump in an unsubstantiated document released by Buzzfeed last week. The report, believed to have been assembled by a former British intelligence officer, also suggested that Putin and his team have assembled a good deal of embarrassing information about the President-to-be that could be used as leverage against him. In a joint press conference with the Moldovan president in Moscow, Putin took aim at those who assembled and released the report.
“These things that have been alleged are clearly false information, It is true that when (Trump) came to Moscow — I don’t remember when, a few years ago — he was not a political actor. We did not know about his political ambitions. He was just a businessman, one of the rich people of America. What do you think — we have special security services running after every American billionaire? Of course not. It is complete rubbish,” the Russian president stated.
Putin went on to discredit claims that Donald Trump came to Russia and met with prostitutes, suggesting that the American businessman wouldn’t need to resort to mingling with Russia’s lower social classes.
“Did Trump really come and meet with Moscow prostitutes? Firstly he is an adult, and secondly he is a person who for many years has organized a beauty pageant, socialized with the most beautiful women in the world. It is hard to believe that he ran to a hotel to meet with our girls of a low social class, although they are the best in the world,” Putin said.
Putin wouldn’t rest with simply countering the points presented in the document, instead taking the offensive against those he claimed ordered the false information and then spread it for political gain.
Russian President, Vladimir Putin, dismissed allegations regarding the Kremlin maintaining a dossier of damning information about American President Elect Donald Trump for use in black mail on Tuesday, referring to the idea as “rubbish.”
Vladimir Putin, along with the Russian intelligence community, were said to have had long-standing ties with Donald Trump in an unsubstantiated document released by Buzzfeed last week. The report, believed to have been assembled by a former British intelligence officer, also suggested that Putin and his team have assembled a good deal of embarrassing information about the President-to-be that could be used as leverage against him. In a joint press conference with the Moldovan president in Moscow, Putin took aim at those who assembled and released the report.
“These things that have been alleged are clearly false information, It is true that when (Trump) came to Moscow — I don’t remember when, a few years ago — he was not a political actor. We did not know about his political ambitions. He was just a businessman, one of the rich people of America. What do you think — we have special security services running after every American billionaire? Of course not. It is complete rubbish,” the Russian president stated.
Putin went on to discredit claims that Donald Trump came to Russia and met with prostitutes, suggesting that the American businessman wouldn’t need to resort to mingling with Russia’s lower social classes.
“Did Trump really come and meet with Moscow prostitutes? Firstly he is an adult, and secondly he is a person who for many years has organized a beauty pageant, socialized with the most beautiful women in the world. It is hard to believe that he ran to a hotel to meet with our girls of a low social class, although they are the best in the world,” Putin said.
Putin wouldn’t rest with simply countering the points presented in the document, instead taking the offensive against those he claimed ordered the false information and then spread it for political gain.
“But finally, you know, what I want to say, prostitution is a serious, ugly, social phenomenon, young women do this connected to the fact that they cannot survive any other way and that is a problem of society but people who order false information and spread this information against the elected President, who fabricate it and use it in a political fight, they are worse than prostitutes.”
He then went on to explain that he had never actually met the incoming American president and as such, did not know what Trump would do once in office. He added, “I don’t know what he will be doing on the international stage. So I have no foundation to criticize him nor to defend him.”
Donald Trump and his team have also made strong statements regarding the veracity of the information contained in the thirty-five page document, referring to it as “fake news” – piggy backing off of the Democrats recent fervor about fake news stories harming Hillary Clinton’s chances at election during her campaign.
The FBI is currently investigating the claims made in the document, and have suggested that the British intelligence expert who assembled the document was a credible source, though the information contained came almost entirely from third-party; Russian intelligence sources that have yet to be verified for accuracy, and may never be.
In effect, the stories contained in the document may not be true, but sources suggest that the man who compiled them likely didn’t do so as a part of a blatant misinformation campaign, nor was the intent likely to have the document leaked to the press. Instead, it seems the report was put together to aid Trump’s political opponents on either side of the aisle in their efforts to surpass the media frenzy that was Trump’s presidential bid.
Image courtesy of AFP
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