Putin praises ‘objective’ Mueller investigation

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday praised special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. elections as “objective.”

“On the whole he had a very objective investigation and he confirmed that there are no traces whatsoever of collusion between Russia and the incumbent administration, which we said was absolutely fake,” Putin said during a meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Sochi, Russia, according to media translations.

The Hill has reached out to Putin’s press office to confirm the translation is accurate and for comment on the remarks.

{mosads}A redacted version of Mueller’s report was released to the public last month.

It concluded that there was no evidence to establish coordination between Trump’s campaign and Moscow to influence the 2016 presidential election.

However, the report did confirm the American intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered with the 2016 election in “sweeping and systematic fashion” with the goal of electing President Trump.

Russia has long denied interfering.

Trump and Putin spoke earlier this month and agreed that the investigation is “over and there was no collusion,” according to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

She would not say whether Trump confronted Putin over Russia’s election-meddling efforts, which were laid out in detail in Mueller’s 448-page report, and instead blamed former President Obama’s administration for not doing enough to deter the Kremlin’s activities during the election.