Putin suggests 'Ukrainians, Tatars, or Jews' are the real election meddlers


In a second segment of his interview with NBC's Megyn Kelly that aired Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested "Ukrainians, Tatars, or Jews, but with Russian citizenship" may be the real culprits who meddled in the 2016 U.S. election.
"Maybe they are not even Russians," he said of the 13 Russian nationals indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in his election interference probe. "Maybe they have dual citizenship or a green card; maybe the U.S. paid them for this," Putin added. "How can you know that? I do not know, either."
Putin also claimed it is "impossible" for Moscow to involve itself in other countries' affairs as Washington does. "We lack the necessary instruments," said the former KGB agent. "Russia does not have the kind of tools the U.S. has." Watch Putin's full conversation with Kelly in six parts via NBC.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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