MOSCOW, March 17. /TASS/. The Kremlin considers the claims on Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2020 US presidential elections as unfounded, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Office of the Director of National Intelligence published the intelligence community assessment on foreign threats to the 2020 US federal elections. Among other things, the US report claims that the Russian authorities allegedly attempted to denigrate incumbent president Joe Biden and his Democratic Party during last year’s election campaign. The US authorities will impose sanctions based on those findings, the document says.
Russia has never interfered in US elections, Peskov told reporters. "We disagree with the report’s conclusions concerning our country," the Russian presidential spokesman said. "Russia did not interfere in the previous elections, and did not meddle with the 2020 elections to which the report refers," Peskov stressed. "Russia was not involved in campaigns against any of the candidates," he added.
"We consider that this report is wrong," the Kremlin spokesman said. "It is absolutely unfounded and has no proof," he emphasized.
The Kremlin regrets that unfounded claims of Russia’s ‘meddling’ in the US presidential election, based on poor quality materials, are being used as a reason for a possible round of fresh sanctions, Peskov told reporters.
"In general, we can just once again voice regret that such files - far from being of high quality - are used, most likely, as an excuse to put the issue of new sanctions against our country on the agenda," Peskov said.
According to him, "this line is harming the already ailing Russian-US relationship." "And, of course, in any case this sort of line is far from encouraging certain efforts, the manifestation of at least some political will to normalize these relations," Peskov stated.