Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the United States of attempting to interfere in two of Russia’s presidential elections.
Speaking in an interview with U.S. movie director Oliver Stone, Putin said that U.S. diplomats had attempted to influence the vote during the 2000 and 2012 elections.
“It has always been this way,” Putin said. “The [interference] in 2012 was particularly aggressive.”
The president accused U.S. embassy officials of financing opposition movements. “Diplomats should instead be working to establish bilateral relations,” Putin said.
Putin also responded to allegations that Kremlin-backed hackers had sought to influence the U.S. presidential election in 2016.
The president denied the claims, telling Stone that he “did not pay much attention” to the issue as Russia had “its own business to attend to.”
"It seems to me that many of our partners live in their own worlds, unable to understand what’s really happening in other countries, including Russia," he said.
Oliver Stone's interviews with Putin will be broadcast in Russian on Russia's Channel One June 19 - 22.
