MOSCOW, June 5. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump’s purported contacts with Russian officials are deliberately used within the United States as a tool against the current administration, though no sessions between Trump officials and Russia’s Ambassador Sergei Kislyak had ever taken place, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised interview with NBC News anchor Megyn Kelly, which was aired on Monday.
"Nothing to talk about," Putin said, answering Kelly’s question about ties between Russian officials and Trump team.
"There was not even a specific discussion of sanctions or something else. I just find it amazing how you created a sensation where there wasn't anything at all. And proceeded to turn that sensation into a tool for fighting the sitting president," he said.
"You know, you're just very resourceful people there, well done, probably your lives there are boring," he added with irony.
"It's just that someone decided to find fault with it and, you know, select it as a line of attack against the current President. This isn't for us to get into, these are your domestic political squabbles. So you deal with them," he said.
Putin said he was surprised with that hullaballoo around some alleged contacts between Russia’s ambassador and Trump team.
"You see, there were no sessions. When I saw that my jaw dropped," he said, brushing off any allegations he had been briefed of such meetings.
"Do you think, an ambassador from any place in the world or from the US reports to me daily as to whom he meets with and what they discuss? It's just absurd," he said.
"Had there been something out of the ordinary, something remarkable he of course would have advised the minister and the minister would have informed me. Nothing of that happened," Putin said.
"… if there had been something meaningful he (Kislyak) would have made a report to the (foreign) minister, and the minister would have made a report to me. There weren't even any reports. Just every day, routine work that doesn't mean anything that may not even have any prospects," the president said.
Putin dismissed any reports about a back channel for communications between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, which was reportedly discussed with Kislyak by Trump officials.
"I am not aware of such a proposal. No such proposal ever reached me," Putin noted.
"Russia had no channels of communication with neither campaign, the campaigns of the US Presidential candidates. None whatsoever. Russia did not set up and did not have any channels with anyone. There may have been official contacts with the campaigns of all the candidates, which is a standard diplomatic practice," he said.