Putin: Maybe 'Jews' but not Kremlin meddled in US election

Give us a document. Give us an official request. And we'll take a look at it." Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion with Moscow, and Putin laughed at the mere suggestion. "Could anyone really believe that Russia, thousands of miles away... influenced the outcome of the election? Doesn't that sound ridiculous even to you?" Putin asked. On announcing the indictment on the Russians, US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said the document made no judgment on whether the alleged Russian propaganda campaign altered the election outcome. "It's not our goal to interfere. We do not see what goal we would accomplish by interfering. There's no goal," Putin said. US intelligence chiefs last month said Russia still seeks to meddle in US politics, posing a threat to mid-term congressional elections in November, and the 2020 presidential election. Trump has acknowledged that Russia and "other countries" meddled in the 2016 election, but insisted it had "no impact on our votes whatsoever" and vowed to make sure it wouldn't happen again. "We'll counteract whatever they do. We'll counteract it very strongly. You don't want your system of votes to be compromised in any way," Trump said Tuesday. "And we won't allow that to happen." Russian efforts however are said to go far beyond US elections: US General Curtis Scaparrotti, the commander of NATO forces in Europe, told US lawmakers on Thursday that Russia is working to break up the NATO alliance partly through its online operations spreading false information. "Russia is carrying out a campaign of destabilisation to change the international order, fracture NATO and undermine US leadership around the world," Scaparrotti told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday.

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