Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said the outgoing U.S. presidential administration of Barack Obama has been trying to delegitimise president-elect Donald Trump.
“Such actions are harming the interests of the United States, and that harm is enormous,’’ Putin told a press conference, according to comments carried by state media.
Putin denounced as “fake” a report recently published by U.S. media that Russian authorities supposedly had compromising information about Trump with prostitutes on a visit to Moscow several years ago.
Putin said those behind the report were “worse than prostitutes”.
He also expressed doubt that Trump would hire prostitutes while in Moscow as an organiser of a beauty contest who “associated with the world’s most beautiful girls”.
Trump has repeatedly expressed intentions to rebuild U.S.-Russian relations, which are currently at their frostiest point since the Cold War amid disputes over Syria and Ukraine.
