Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said that those who spread "fake news" about United States President-elect Donald Trump are "worse than prostitutes."
Putin made the statement while answering questions about the incoming US President during a news conference held at the Kremlin with his Moldovan counterpart Igor Dodon, according to CBS News.
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The Russian leader, during the conference, also dismissed the reports of a privately-prepared intelligence dossier which claimed Russian intelligence agencies had compromising material on Donald Trump. Reports state that the agencies also have a candid video shot of Trump at a Moscow watching a "golden shower," while he was there in 2013 for the Miss Universe pageant filming.
Putin also accused the Obama administration of attempting to "undermine the legitimacy" of the Republican billionaire's "convincing" election win and also suggested that the dossier had been made public by the White House. Although the US officials have not divulged the details of the dossier, they told CBS News that they believe Russia could have collected a "kompromat" (compromising information) on Trump. The Russian President's intelligence services reportedly collect such confidential material which they call "kompromat" and later use the compromising documents for blackmail.
The Kremlin dismissed the claims of having compromising material on Trump and said that the news is "a fabrication and utter nonsense." According to the intelligence officers, the information of Trump's "kompromat" came from British intelligence officers who gave it to the US intelligence and also other government officials in 2016.
US intelligence agencies and the Obama administration has blamed Russia for intervening in the 2016 US elections by hacking the Democratic National Committee emails to hamper the Hillary Clinton campaign and influence a Donald Trump win. Various US intelligence agencies have said that there are also evidence suggesting that the Russian President's government was directly involved in the hack. However, the Putin government has rejected allegations of any such involvement.
