• Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday dismissed a reporter’s question about election interference as “utter nonsense” during a joint press conference with President Donald Trump.
  • Trump did not explicitly say he believed Putin on the subject of election interference but did say the Russian leader’s denials were “extremely powerful.”
  • Just a few days earlier, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced that 12 Russian intelligence officers were being indicted on charges of election interference as part of the special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday dismissed a reporter’s question about election interference as “utter nonsense” during a joint press conference with President Donald Trump.

Putin rejected the notion there was collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign ahead of the 2016 US presidential election, adding: “We should be guided by facts. Could you name a single fact that would definitively prove the collusion? This is utter nonsense.”

The Russian leader added, “Isn’t it natural to be sympathetic toward a person who is willing to restore the relationship with our country, who wants to work with us?”

Putin also denied that Russia interfered in the US election, contradicting conclusions from US intelligence agencies, while acknowledging he had hoped Trump would win in 2016.

Trump did not explicitly say he believed Putin on the subject of election interference but did call the Russian leader's denials "extremely powerful."

The press conference occurred after Putin and Trump held a meeting in which they were joined only by translators. Trump was widely criticized, including by former CIA Director John Brennan, for meeting with Putin alone.

This all comes just several days after Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced 12 Russian intelligence officers were being indicted on charges related to the hacking of the Democratic National Committee as part of the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference. During Monday's press conference, Trump referred to the Mueller investigation as a "disaster" for the US.