U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin was “probably” involved in assassinations and poisonings, but those crimes were “not in our country.”
According to The Hill, during his interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” host Lesley Stahl pressed Trump over his unusually warm relationship with Putin, whom he often declines to criticize publicly.
“Do you agree that Vladimir Putin is involved in assassinations? In poisonings?” Stahl asked Trump.
“Probably he is, yeah,” he said. “But I rely on them, it’s not in our country.”
“They shouldn’t do it,” Stahl replied. “This is a terrible thing.”
Trump later agreed that the Russian government should not order assassinations and poisonings.
UK officials accused Putin of ordering the poisoning of ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal, but the Kremlin has denied involvement.
Many of the Russian president’s critics or dissidents have been killed under suspicious circumstances, The Hill wrote.
When Trump was asked about the Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the president said he believes Russia meddled but “China meddled too.”
Stahl later asked him for evidence to back up the accusation against China, but Trump was not able to provide.
“You are diverting the whole Russia thing,” Stahl said.
“I’m not doing anything,” the President said.
Trump received harsh criticism regarding the conference with Putin in Helsinki, where the President said that he doesn’t believe Russia meddled in the 2016 elections because Putin was very powerful in his denying.
However, the U.S. intelligence community has unanimously concluded that Russia sought to sway the results of the presidential election in favor of Trump.
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