Russian President Vladimir Putin stonily refused to look at the indictment of 12 Russian military intelligence officers accused of an U.S. election-year cyberattack during a contentious Fox News interview Monday.
After the one-on-one between Putin and President Donald Trump in Helsinki, Finland, Fox News host Chris Wallace conducted a fiery interview with the Russian leader, clutching the indictment in his hand, and asking the Russian leader, "May I give this to you to look at sir? Here."
Putin — who smiled and giggled as Wallace explained the allegations in the indictment — quickly went stonily silent as Wallace leaned toward him with the papers, waving them off to a table between the pair.
He then launched into a long explanation about the veracity of the emails — during which Wallace interrupted several times, getting scolded by Putin to "have some patience."
"Interference with domestic affairs of the United States, do you really believe that someone acting from the Russian territory could have influenced the United States and influenced the choice of millions of Americans?" Putin asked testily.
"I'm not asking if they influenced, I'm asking whether they tried," Wallace shot back.
He also insisted "the information that I am aware of, the Democratic leadership admitted it," Putin added about the veracity of the emails, but begging the question of who hacked them.
"Why wouldn't special counsel [Robert Mueller] send us an official request within this framework [guiding criminal investigations]" to question the military officials, Putin added. "Nobody sent us a single formal letter."
He also called the Mueller investigation "none of my business," describing the release of the indictment as "dirty methods."
Putin also was grilled on NATO, saying Russia would react "extremely negative" if the multi-national alliance would move to add Ukraine or Georgia to the group.
And when asked about the targeting of civilians by Russian war planes in areas including Allepo, Syria.
"When there is a war . . . victims [are] inevitable," he said, blaming "terrorist groups" as the "true culprits" and asserting "Americans gave us the exact same answer in Afghanistan."
And he fought back on whether Crimea was annexed by Russia.
"The people . . . voted for joining Russia. If this annexation, what is democracy?" he asked.
When Wallace asked why so "many people who opposed you end up dead or close to it," Putin dismissed the query, saying "I'm sure President Trump has political enemies."
"Nobody's been killed," Wallace pressed, to which Putin then brought up the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
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