Vladimir Putin says he ‘doesn’t care’ who the American president is

Speaking to American TV host Megyn Kelly, the Russian president again denied any state involvement in the presidential election that saw Donald Trump taking top office.

Asked repeatedly about claims the Kremlin interfered in last year’s vote, Putin said flatly that he ‘doesn’t care’ who the US president is, because ‘presidents come and go, and even the political party in power changes – but the main political direction does not change’.

‘That’s why, in the grand scheme of things, we don’t care who the president of the United States is, because we know more or less what is going to happen,’ he said.

Kelly, a former Fox News host known for coming to blows with Trump during the campaign last summer, interviewed Putin for her new show on NBC.

The interview comes after the FBI found significant evidence of Russian interference, which it says was sanctioned by the Kremlin.

But when pressed on the issue, the Russian president suggested that the US itself could have been behind the hacks. He claimed they could have used relatively easily available tools that allow you to change the location of the IP addresses in order to make it look like the hacks came from Russia.

‘Hackers can be from anywhere,’ he told Kelly. ‘There can even be hackers, by the way, in the United States, who very skillfully and professionally shifted the blame onto Russia. Could you accept that?

‘In the midst of political battle, by some calculations, it was convenient for them to release this information. So they released it, calling it Russia. Can you imagine something like that? I can.’

And when Kelly brought up a highly controversial alleged dossier that claims the Kremlin has compromising information on Trump, the Russian leader dismissed it as ‘another load of nonsense’.

‘I never met with [Trump],’ he said. ‘We have a lot of Americans who visit us. Do you think we’re gathering compromising information on all of them right now or something?

‘Are you all… Have you all lost your senses over there!?’

Putin then accused Kelly – and by implication all Americans – of being hypocrites.

‘I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but the United States everywhere, all over the world, actively interferes with the electoral campaigns of other countries,’ he said.

‘Put your finger anywhere on the map of the world, and you will hear complaints that American officials are interfering in political processes.’

This wasn’t the first time Kelly grilled Putin on the hacking allegations.

Moderating a panel of world leaders at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Kelly told the Russian leader that ‘all evidence – digital fingerprints, IP addresses’ pointed to Russia being involved.

‘What fingerprints? Or hoof prints? Or horn prints? What are you talking about?!’ Putin replied.