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US-POLITICS-RUSSIA-INVESTIGATION-MUELLER
Kremlin again denies meddling in US vote
MOSCOW, March 25, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The Kremlin on Monday reiterated
denials that Moscow interfered in the 2016 US presidential election after
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report found conclusive evidence of Russian
meddling.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists he had not seen the
report but Russia’s “principled position on this matter is well known: our
country has not interfered in the domestic affairs of other countries,
including the United States.”
Peskov insisted “the accusations of interference… that are still being
made against Russia, we as before consider to be baseless.”
Mueller’s nearly two-year investigation found Russia carried out a
coordinated campaign of disinformation and hacked emails from Hillary
Clinton’s election team. The report however did not find that Donald Trump’s
campaign team colluded with Moscow.
In a statement, the Russian foreign ministry said that Mueller’s report
“simply could not have been different.”
The United States has expended “colossal efforts” and a significant amount
of taxpayers’ money to “refute an obvious falsehood,” the ministry said.
Moscow said it hoped Washington would eventually acknowledge that reports
of Russian meddling were nothing but “malicious slander” conjured up for use
in Washington’s power struggles.
“And probably then we will be able to close the door on this matter,” the
foreign ministry said.
Pro-Kremlin lawmakers hailed the report as vindicating both Russia and
Trump, but were cautious on whether this would prompt a revival in relations.
The report’s findings “are a disgrace for the US and its political elite,”
Senator Alexei Pushkov wrote on Twitter.
“There’s a chance to start a lot again from zero in our relations, but
whether Trump will take the risk is still under question. We, of course, are
ready,” Konstantin Kosachev, foreign affairs committee chair in the upper
house of parliament, wrote on Facebook.
The foreign affairs chief in the lower house, Leonid Slutsky, told
journalists the report’s findings “are hardly capable of changing anything
immediately in the dialogue between Russia and the US,” RIA Novosti state
news agency reported.
BSS/AFP/BZC/1910HRS