Vladimir Putin Takes a Swipe at Obama and Clinton, Says "We Don't Protect Assad, We Protect Syria from Becoming Libya"

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the recent chemical attack in Syria was a provocation to frame Syrian President Bashar Assad.


The U.S. blamed Assad for the deadly attack and fired missiles at a Syrian air base in response.


Speaking at an economic forum in St. Petersburg on Friday, Putin said the attack was a provocation intended to put the blame on the Syrian ruler, insisting that "Assad didn't use those weapons."


He said Russia had offered the U.S. and its allies the chance to inspect the Syrian base for traces of the chemical agent and criticized them for their refusal to do so.


Putin also ridiculed the U.S. focus on the Russian ambassador's contacts with members of President Donald Trump's team, saying that the envoy was only doing his job.


He said it is Ambassador Sergei Kislyak's duty to maintain contacts with various people in Washington.


Kislyak's meetings with members of Trump's team have been a focus of the congressional investigation.


Putin insisted that it was perfectly normal for Kislyak to try to establish contacts and discuss future ties, adding that he hadn't even started to discuss specifics. He described the focus on Kislyak's contacts as "catastrophic nonsense."


The Russian president also disputed U.S. claims that his country interfered in the 2016 election.


Putin said that the claims contained "nothing concrete, only assumptions." He added that IP addresses allegedly belonging to Russian hackers could have been easily rigged and couldn't stand as evidence.


U.S. intelligence agencies have accused Russia of hacking into Democratic Party emails, helping Donald Trump's election victory, and the congressional and FBI investigations into the Trump campaign's ties with Russia have broken the Kremlin's hopes for a detente with Washington.



Putin attributed the accusations of Russian interference to the Democrats' anger over losing the vote, adding that Trump won because he has been more successful in his campaign.