NEW YORK, July 17. /TASS/. Russia has no compromising materials on US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a Fox News interview on Monday.
"We don't have anything on them," Putin said.
"I don't want to insult President Trump when I say this - and I may come as rude - but before he announced that he will run for presidency, he was of no interest for us," he added.
"He was a rich person, but, well, there's plenty of rich persons in the United States," Putin said of Trump. "He was in the construction business. He organized the beauty pageants. But no, it would never occur to anyone that he would think of running for president."
Putin said the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in Russia's second largest city usually gathers some 500 business leaders from all over the world, and most of them are industrial tycoons on a "greater scale" than Trump as a businessman.
"Do you think that our Special Services actually organized surveillance on each and every of them?" the Russian president said. "Well, unlike you, unlike the United States, we don't do this. We don't have enough resources. We don't have enough manpower to organize the total state of control. That's not part of our plans. And it's clear that we did nothing of that kind of against Mr. Trump.".