Saying, “I’m surprised we have not yet been accused of provoking the Black Lives Matter movement,” Russian President Vladimir Putin brushed off serious accusations made by the US against Russia, including election interference, cybercrime and the detention and attempted assassination of dissident Alexei Navalny.
Ahead of his summit Wednesday with President Biden in Geneva, the Russian leader told NBC News that American allegations that Russian hackers or the Kremlin itself were behind cyberattacks in the US were “farcical.”
“We have been accused of all kinds of things,” Putin told the network. “Election interference, cyberattacks and so on and so forth. And not once, not once, not one time, did they bother to produce any kind of evidence or proof. Just unfounded accusations.”
He added: “I’m surprised that we have not yet been accused of provoking the Black Lives Matter movement.”
Biden recently announced he would be sanctioning six Russian technology companies and 32 individuals involved in Russia’s interference in the 2020 election and breach of US government agencies.
Putin repeated the call for both countries to join forces to fight cybercrime.
“It is our great hope that we will be able to set up this process with our US partners,” he said.
Asked about Biden’s criticism that Russia had contributed to instability around the world, Putin accused the US of doing the same in Libya, Afghanistan and Syria.
Putin deflected criticism by pointing out US failures, suggesting that criticism from the West was hypocritical because all countries act in their own self-interest.
“Look, such decisions in this country are not made by the president,” Putin told NBC News.
He also denied that he had ordered a hit on Kremlin critic Navalny — but also indicated he could not guarantee that the dissident would get out of jail alive.
Reminded that Navalny wasn’t just any inmate, Putin answered: “He will not be treated any worse than anybody else.”
Navalny was arrested in January upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin — an accusation that Russian officials reject.
In February, he was given a 2 1/2-year prison term for violating the terms of a suspended sentence from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that he dismissed as politically motivated.
Putin also claimed that Russia is not cracking down on internal dissent any more than the US is doing — and pointed to the arrests of hundreds of people in the US Capitol riots to try to make his point.
Putin cited the death of one rioter who tried to breach a police barricade inside the Capitol as proof that America also targets its citizens for their political opinions — though people were arrested not for the views, but for their alleged destruction of property during the Jan. 6 riot, NBC News reported.
“We have a saying: ‘Don’t be mad at the mirror if you are ugly,'” Putin said. “It has nothing to do with you personally. But if somebody blames us for something, what I say is, why don’t you look at yourselves? You will see yourselves in the mirror, not us.”
Putin suggested that the suspected rioters are being subjected to a “persecution for political opinions.”
“Did you order the assassination of the woman who walked into the Congress and who was shot and killed by a policeman?” Putin said, referring to Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran and ardent President Donald Trump supporter who was shot dead.
“Do you know that 450 individuals were arrested after entering the Congress? And they didn’t go there to steal a laptop. They came with political demands,” he said, referring to the computer stolen from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office.
Putin also denied a Washington Post report that Moscow was planning to offer Iran an advanced satellite system that would enable it to track military targets, including the remaining US forces in Iraq.
“It’s just fake news. At the very least, I don’t know anything about this kind of thing,” Putin said. “Those who are speaking about it probably know more about it. It’s just nonsense, garbage.”
He also said he seeks “predictability and stability” in Moscow’s relationship with Washington, echoing previous statements from the White House, but adding, “This is something we haven’t seen in recent years.”
Biden has claimed he told Putin to his face during a 2011 Kremlin visit as vice president that the Russian doesn’t “have a soul.”
“I do not remember this particular part of our conversations,” Putin, who is expected to meet Biden on Wednesday, told NBC News when asked about the characterization.
He also had kind words for Trump, calling him “an extraordinary individual.”
“Mr. Trump is an extraordinary individual, talented individual, otherwise he would not have become US president,” Putin said. “He is a colorful individual.”
