Putin: Mueller Report Confirms No Collusion between Russia, US Administration

SOCHI – US Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report is impartial and confirms that there is no collusion between Russia and the current US administration, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with US Secretary of State Michal Pompeo.

“Despite the exoticism of the work by Mr. Mueller’s commission, we must give him his due.In general, he conducted an impartial investigation and confirmed the absence of all sorts of traces and any kind of collusion between Russia and the current administration, something we initially described as utter nonsense,” he said.

Putin assured that there had been no Russian meddling in the US election at the government level. Nevertheless, all that led to the deterioration of bilateral relations, he added. “I hope that today the situation is changing,” he said.

According to the Russian president, the areas of common interest include the preservation of strategic stability, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, resolution of regional crises, the fight against organized crime, efforts to tackle environmental and poverty issues.

Putin noted that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told him briefly about his talks with Pompeo before the meeting. “I would like your visit to Russia, and you came to our country for the first time as the (US) secretary of state, to benefit our bilateral ties and contribute to their development,” he concluded.

TASS

R.S