Vladimir Putin dismisses Donald Trump dossier claims as 'rubbish'

Putin made clear Tuesday he was familiar with some of the unsubstantiated allegations about Donald Trump in a dossier prepared by a former British intelligence agent. As CNN first reported, Trump and President Obama were presented the dossier by senior intelligence officials, who warned that Russia may have gathered compromising material on the President-elect. Buzzfeed later published the dossier in full.

At a news conference in Moscow, Putin referred to some of the more salacious and unverifiable allegations -- which CNN has not previously reported. They included claims that Russia had video evidence of Trump with prostitutes at a hotel in Moscow when he was in the city for the Miss Universe pageant in 2013.

"These things that have been alleged are clearly false information," Putin said during the joint news conference with the Moldovan president.

"It is true that when (Trump) came to Moscow -- I don't remember when, a few years ago -- he was not a political actor. We did not know about his political ambitions. He was just a businessman, one of the rich people of America. What do you think -- we have special security services running after every American billionaire? Of course not. It is complete rubbish," Putin added.

Putin joked about the allegations before vigorously defending Trump and attacking those who prepared and published the dossier:

"Did Trump really come and meet with Moscow prostitutes? Firstly he is an adult, and secondly he is a person who for many years has organized a beauty pageant, socialized with the most beautiful women in the world. It is hard to believe that he ran to a hotel to meet with our girls of a low social class, although they are the best in the world," Putin said.

"But finally, you know, what I want to say, prostitution is a serious, ugly, social phenomenon, young women do this connected to the fact that they cannot survive any other way and that is a problem of society but people who order false information and spread this information against the elected President, who fabricate it and use it in a political fight, they are worse than prostitutes," he added.

 

The Russian leader also said he had never met the President-elect.

"I don't know what he will be doing on the international stage. So I have no foundation to criticize him nor to defend him," Putin added.

The accusations against Russian security officials were presented in a two-page synopsis, appended to a report on alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The allegations came, in part, from memos compiled by the former British intelligence operative, whose past work US intelligence officials consider credible. The FBI is investigating the credibility and accuracy of these allegations, which are based primarily on information from Russian sources, but has not confirmed many essential details in the memos about Trump.

Trump dismissed the allegations as "fake news" at a news conference last week.