Putin: Trump attackers 'worse than prostitutes'
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday dismissed challenges to the legitimacy of President-elect Donald Trump's election victory, saying Trump's detractors "fabricate information and use it in the political struggle; they are worse than prostitutes; they have no moral limits."
Putin, speaking at a news conference in Moscow, scoffed at a privately prepared dossier claiming Russian operatives obtained unverified, salacious and potentially compromising personal and financial information about the president-elect. Trump, who is inaugurated this Friday, has dismissed the dossier as “fake news.”
On Tuesday, Putin concurred.
"Trump, when he came to Moscow a few years ago was not a politician," Putin said, according to a Sputnik News translation. "We did not even know about his political ambitions, he was just a businessman, one of the richest men in America.
"Is someone really thinking that our intelligence agencies are chasing every American billionaire, or what? Of course not! It's just a complete nonsense."
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The alleged Russian files on Trump came to light last week when Buzzfeed published the 35-page dossier, believed to have been written by a former British security official. Multiple media outlets reported that the dossier was produced initially at the behest of Republicans opposed to Trump and later for Democrats.
The dossier claimed Russian operatives have been “cultivating, supporting and assisting” Trump for years while also compiling damaging information against him.
Trump, Putin said, was a victim of an "acute political struggle" in the U.S. Putin said Trump's foes hope to "tie the hands of legs of the newly elected president" and thus make it more difficult for Trump to implement his campaign promises.
Putin said the controversy over Trump reflects a "degradation of political elites" in the West but said he hopes common sense will prevail.
The Russian leader assured the gathering of reporters that his motives were pure.
"I don't know Mr. Trump, I have never met him," Putin said. "I don't know what he will do in the international arena, so I have no reason either to attack him, criticize him or defend him."