London [U.K.] Jul. 9 : Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that U.S. President Donald Trump "seemed satisfied" with his personal denial of meddling in the 2016 election. Putin, in his first interview after meeting Trump, revealed that the latter asked him a number of questions regarding Russia's interference, reported the Independent.
Further, stressing on the same, Putin said that it would be better to take Trump's opinion as to whether or not he believed his denial.
"He asked questions, I replied. It seemed to me that he was satisfied with the answers," Putin said. Putin's remark came after the diplomats of the U.S. and Russia argued over what both the leaders actually said to each other during their bilateral meet at the sideline of the G-20 summit.
At first, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed that Trump accepted Putin's assurances that Russia was no way involved in the 2016 American election, as reported by the CNN.
Meanwhile as per the U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the U.S. President opened the session by "raising the concerns of the American people regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election." As per reports, Russia asked for from the U.S.
to support their claim regarding its involvement in the election, which the U.S. did not produce in the meeting. As per Tillerson, both the leaders had a lengthy exchange on the subject. "The President pressed President Putin on more than one occasion regarding Russian involvement. President Putin denied such involvement, as I think he has in the past," Tillerson said. Meanwhile, Lavrov, speaking on camera in a separate briefing, said that, "President Trump said he's heard Putin's very clear statements that this is not true and that the Russian government didn't interfere in the elections and that he accepts these statements.
That's all." Surprisingly, both Tillerson and Lavrov were present in the room with Trump and Putin for the bilateral talks.
Later on another Trump administration official denied that Trump accepted Putin's claim of non-interference.
Source: ANI
