Vladimir Putin has labelled allegations claiming that Russian operatives have compromising personal and financial information regarding President-elect Donald Trump as "false." Russia has been accused of interfering in the 2016 election on Trump's behalf, and now US intelligence officials are looking into allegations from a former British intelligence operative that Russia have been monitoring the billionaire.
Putin blames Trump's political enemies
During a news conference in Moscow, Putin said that he was aware of the allegations surrounding Russian officials gathering information on Trump, who is set to take his seat in the White House on January 20, but labelled them as "rubbish" before taking aim at Trump's political enemies.
Putin claimed that the 35-page report which was leaked last week was a final attempt by the outgoing President Barack Obama to "undermine the legitimacy of the President-elect", before claiming that those involved in the allegations were no better than prostitutes.
Putin and Trump question the legitimacy of dossier
The information gathered alleged that years ago Russian intelligence had recorded compromising footage of Trump, however, Putin dismissed these claims stating that the only time the two had met was before Trump was a political figure, and questioned whether American intelligence really believed that Russia was capable of monitoring every American billionaire. Putin then said that he believed there were two main reasons for the leaking of the recent allegations against Russia.
The first reason was to delegitimize the President-elect, and the second was "tie the hands and legs" of Trump over the promises he made during his election campaign. Trump himself has openly questioned if it was his political enemies who were behind the recently leaked information, with many of the President-elect's detractors criticizing the business tycoon's blossoming relationship with Putin.
Some of the recent allegations against Trump accuse him of taking part in sexual fetish acts with Russian prostitute's during a visit to Moscow, something that Trump demanded the media and U.S intelligence agencies apologize for.
Accusations against Trump
Some of the recent allegations against Trump accuse him of taking part in sexual fetish acts with Russian prostitutes during a visit to Moscow, something that Trump demanded the media and U.S intelligence agencies apologize for.
Following his shocking 2016 election victory over Democratic Party candidate Hilary Clinton last November, Trump vowed to meet with Putin in an attempt to amend relationships with Russia, which had become sour due to the conflicts in both Syria and Ukraine.