Putin: Kremlin never interfered in US election

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the Kremlin never interfered in last year’s presidential election in the United States.
Putin stressed that contacts between Russian diplomats and some campaign officials in the US were merely part of their routine work. He said allegations to the contrary are lies and provocations. The Russian president noted that Moscow has many friends in the U-S and hoped that its troubled relations with Washington would get back on track at some point. He said Russia wants to build friendly ties with the US. President Donald Trump and his campaign have been accused of having links with Moscow. In a declassified report released in January, the U-S intelligence community concluded that Putin helped Trump win the election, an allegation that resulted in investigations into the issue despite being dismissed both by Moscow and the US president.