Putin says US election allegations are 'fiction'
Russia's President Vladimir Putin says the allegations of Russian meddling in the US presidential election are "fiction" invented by the Democrats in order to explain their loss.
In an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro, Putin reaffirmed his strong denial of Russian involvement in the hacking of Democratic emails. The interview was recorded during Putin's Monday trip to Paris and released Tuesday.
He said the claims of Russian meddling are driven by the "desire of those who lost the US elections to improve their standing by accusing Russia of interfering." Putin added that the "people who lost the vote hate to acknowledge that they indeed lost because the person who won was closer to the people and had a better understanding of what people wanted." Trump made a similar claim in a tweet early Tuesday.
