Russia's President Vladimir Putin has accused the political classes in the United States and Britain of "disrespecting" the public by questioning President Donald Trump's election and the Brexit referendum.
"They don't want to recognize [Trump's] victory – that's disrespect of voters," Putin said in a year-end news conference, BBC reported Thursday.
"The same in Britain: Brexit happened, but no-one wants to implement it."
Two reports commissioned for the Senate Intelligence Committee determined this week Russia had used every social media platform to persuade voters to support Trump and not to vote for his opponent Hillary Clinton. It is unclear if the efforts succeeded in changing votes.
Special counsel Robert Mueller is continuing to investigate whether members of the Trump campaign collaborated with the Russian government to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.
In his remarks, Putin also said British Prime Minister Theresa May has no choice but to follow through with Brexit, as failing to do so would undermine the nation's democracy.
"She must enact the will of the people, expressed during the referendum," he said, BBC reported. "Or otherwise it is not a referendum at all: doing it over and over again if someone did not like it [the result]. Is it a democracy?"
The June 2016 Brexit vote, in which a slim majority of voters said they wanted the U.K. to leave the European Union, came just ahead of Trump's victory.
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