Putin praises Mueller investigation as ‘very objective’

Russian President Vladimir Putin has praised as “very objective” US Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential elections.

"On the whole he had a very objective investigation and he confirmed that there are no traces whatsoever of collusion between Russia and the incumbent administration, which we said was absolutely fake," Putin said during a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi on Tuesday.

The Russian president said he hoped US-Russia relations would start improving now that the Mueller’s report was out and after the issue had long cast a pall over bilateral ties.

"I've formed the impression that your president wants to repair Russia-US ties and contacts and wants to solve issues which are of common interest for us," Putin told Pompeo. "We've said many times that we also want to fully restore our relations. I hope that the necessary conditions for that to happen will now be created."

A redacted version of Mueller's 448-page report was released to the public last month, concluding that there was no evidence to establish coordination between then-Republican candidate Donald Trump's campaign and Moscow to influence the 2016 presidential election.

The Russian government undertook a "sweeping and systematic" campaign to help Trump win the White House in 2016 and campaign aides were eager to benefit from their help, according to Mueller’s report. However, investigators did not find that the president or his campaign “conspired or coordinated” with Russia to win the election.

“The investigation established multiple links between Trump campaign officials and individuals tied to the Russian government," the report said.

Trump and his Russian counterpart spoke earlier this month and agreed that the investigation is "over and there was no collusion," according to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Robert Mueller submits report on Trump-Russia probe

US Special Counsel Robert Mueller has closed his probe into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election and any potential wrongdoing by US President Donald Trump.

Since May 2017, Mueller, a former FBI director, had been examining whether Trump’s election campaign colluded with Moscow to try to influence the 2016 election and whether the Republican president later unlawfully tried to obstruct his investigation.

US intelligence agencies claimed Moscow had meddled in the election with a campaign of email hacking and online propaganda aimed at sowing discord in the United States, hurting Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and helping Trump.

Both Trump and Russia, however, have repeatedly denied the accusations. Trump has sought to discredit the investigation, calling it a “witch hunt” and accusing Mueller of conflicts of interest.

Trump had previously said that an investigation similar to the Russia probe should never happen again to another president.

"This should never happen to a president again. We can’t allow that to take place," he said.

PressTV-'Phony' Russia probe 'should never' happen again: Trump

President Trump says that the "phony and fraudulent" Russia investigation "should never" happen to another president.

Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress have called for investigations into the origins of the Russia probe and asserted that the results invalidate the necessity of the investigation.

US not to ‘tolerate’ election interference

Also on Tuesday, Pompeo said in a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that the United States would not tolerate future Russian interference in American elections.

“Interference in American elections is unacceptable and if the Russians were engaged in that in 2020 it would put our relationship in an even worse place than it has been. We would not tolerate that,” Pompeo said.

The top American diplomat, who has faced pressure from Democrats for his hardline stance against Russia, also said the US was opposed to election interference from any country.

“We’ve said this not only about the Russians but about other countries as well,” he told reporters. “Our elections are important and sacred and they must be kept free and fair and with no outside country interfering."

Lavrov, for his part, accused the US of meddling in Russian political affairs and denounced as “baseless” allegations that Moscow interfered in the 2016 election, saying, “Such insinuations are absolutely fake."

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