Putin ‘thinks’ Trump agreed with hack denial

Bloomberg

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he believes Donald Trump agrees with his denial that Russia attempted to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election, which would put the US president at odds with the conclusion of multiple intelligence agencies.
Putin and Trump met at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg for more than two hours. At a press conference on Saturday, Putin said Trump raised the issue of Russia interfering in the election many times, but that the Russian leader denied involvement by Moscow. He said he believed Trump accepted his arguments.
“He asked many questions about that,” Putin said of Trump. “I answered those questions as best I could. I think he took note of that and agreed. In any case, it’s better to ask him how he reacted.”
Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said reporters should “believe Lavrov” regarding differences in accounts of Friday’s meeting given by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Trump, Putin, their top diplomats and translators were the only people present during the long-anticipated meeting.
After the meeting, Lavrov briefed reporters and said that Trump agreed with Putin’s assurances that Russia hadn’t interfered in the election. “He accepts these statements,” Lavrov said of Trump—a contention that the White House denied vigorously.
US intelligence agencies have concluded that the Russian government helped direct a sophisticated effort to tilt the 2016 presidential election in Trump’s favor. Trump has been reluctant to accept that conclusion.
“It could very well have been Russia, but I think it could well have been other countries,” Trump said during a news conference in Warsaw on Thursday. “I think a lot of people interfere. I think it’s been happening for a long time.”
The US agencies concluded that Russian hackers stole and released emails of officials in the Democratic National Committee with the intent to damage Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and help Trump. Since the election, there have been fresh reports of breaches or attempted breaches of other computer systems in the US, many of which are suspected to be tied to Russia.
Putin on Saturday said the US and Russia could start restoring relations if contacts continue in the same way as Friday’s conversation. He also denied that Russia would attempt to interfere in other elections around the world, including in Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel is running for re-election in September.