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Kremlin chief of staff dismisses US corruption accusations against Putin as "nonsense"

Vladimir Putin's press secretary earlier demanded that the United States Treasury provide evidence to support allegations of corruption
Chief of Staff of Russia's Presidential Executive Office Sergei Ivanov Mikhail Japaridze/TASS
Chief of Staff of Russia's Presidential Executive Office Sergei Ivanov
© Mikhail Japaridze/TASS

MOSCOW, January 26. /TASS/. Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Sergei Ivanov dismissed the United States Treasury accusations of corruption against the Russian President Vladimir Putin as "nonsense".

"I have been occupying various high positions in the government for a long time - this is my seventeenth year. I said many times I do not give comments on nonsense," Ivanov told journalists Tuesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the content of the BBC documentary containing claims from US Treasury, in which its Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Crimes Adam Szubin said that the Russian head of state was amassing personal wealth, "is pure speculation and defamation, which has no grounds."

"If they leave such official statements without evidence, it casts a shadow on the reputation of the department," Peskov added. "Now it is the task of this department to submit any evidence to show that the statements of their official representative are not an unfounded defamation," he added.

"We’ve got used to media hoaxes either related to lack of qualifications, a rush toward gutter news or orchestrated campaigns," the spokesman said.

In the case of the BBC film, "everything would have looked like another example of patently irresponsible journalism but for the official comment presented in the film," he said, referring to the Treasury official’s claims.

At the same time, "deceitful comments" by the Treasury official would hardly aggravate relations between Moscow and Washington that are "currently not in their best shape", he added.

"To be honest, the relations are currently not in their best shape. To the extent that such deceitful comments are unlikely to complicate the situation even more," Peskov said.