President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin assured him that he “did not intervene” in last year’s US presidential elections.
The two leaders met on the sidelines of the summit of Asia-Pacific leaders held in Vietnam.
Multiple US intelligence agencies have concluded that Moscow meddled in the 2016 election to try to help Trump win.
“I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it,” Trump said of the accusations. “I think he’s very insulted by it, which is not a good thing for our country.”
Multiple investigations are also under way to determine whether Trump campaign officials colluded with them.
Trump dismissed the heads of those agencies as "political hacks." He said there's plenty of reason to be suspicious of their findings.
It would be a great thing to have a good relationship with Russia, Trump added.
For his part, Putin said that an alleged link between Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort and Russia is being fabricated by Trump's opponents as a weapon against Trump.
Reports that his relatives were involved in contacts with Trump administration were untrue, he told a briefing at the end of the Vietnam summit.
Manafort, has been indicted in the probe along with his former deputy, Rick Gates.
