Russia dismisses US election tampering charges as ‘blather’


FE Team | Published: February 18, 2018 11:25:11 | Updated: February 18, 2018 14:21:33


Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (Reuters photo used for representational purpose)

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has dismissed as ‘blather’ the charges levelled by the FBI special counsel against 13 Russians for election tampering.

He said at a major security conference in Germany that he would not comment further until he saw ‘facts’.

The charges brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller are seen as a major development in his continuing probe into the US 2016 election, says a BBC report.

President Trump has said the indictment shows his campaign did ‘nothing wrong’.

The Russian foreign minister was being questioned by participants at the Munich Security Conference.

Asked about the charges, he said that even Vice-President Mike Pence had called the investigation into question.

"So until we see the facts, everything else is just blather."

But Trump's National Security Adviser, H R McMaster, said evidence of Russian meddling was "now incontrovertible".

It would become harder to conceal attempts to "interfere in our democratic process", he added.

In a series of tweets, Trump has repeated his assertion that there was ‘no collusion’ between his campaign and Russia.

On Saturday, he quoted remarks by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who said that no American had knowingly participated in the Russians' activities.

However, Rosenstein's comments only refer to the indictment which was published on Friday.

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