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Russia will “never” extradite any of its 13 nationals indicted last month by special counsel Robert Mueller for interfering in the 2016 US election, Vladimir Putin said, even as he insisted they did not act on behalf of his government.
Putin spoke in a second interview with Megyn Kelly of NBC, due to air in the US on Sunday and trailed extensively this week. Kelly, formerly of Fox News, first interviewed the Russian president in June 2017.
In that interview, the Russian president denied that his government holds any compromising material on Donald Trump. The existence or not of such “kompromat” is one strand of Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference, which US intelligence agencies agree aimed to sway the election in Trump’s favour.
Mueller is also looking into alleged collusion between Trump aides and Moscow and has indicted four former staffers: national security adviser Michael Flynn, foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, campaign manager Paul Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates.
Flynn, Papadopoulos and Gates have entered plea deals in return for cooperation. Manafort maintains his innocence on charges including money laundering and tax and bank fraud. Trump has denied any collusion between his aides and the Kremlin, calling the investigations a “witch hunt”.
Mueller indicted the 13 Russians last month, alleging they “communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump campaign”.
Putin’s defiant answer to Kelly illustrated the long odds that the 13 will ever appear in US court to answer charges of running a massive, secret social media trolling and targeted messaging operation. The US has no extradition treaty with Moscow. A provision in Russia’s constitution prohibits extraditing its citizens.
“Never,” Putin told Kelly. “Never. Russia does not extradite its citizens to anyone.”
The justice department has long supported indicting foreigners, to make it harder for them to travel. Legal experts have said Mueller’s indictment served to increase public awareness.
The 37-page document alleges that Russians working for the Internet Research Agency used fake social media accounts and on-the-ground political organizing to exacerbate divisive US issues. Posing as Americans, they purchased space on US computer servers and used US email providers.
Putin said his government would have little to answer for until the US provides “some materials, specifics and data”. Russia would be “prepared to look at them and talk about it”, he said, repeating his insistence that his government had no role in directing the operatives.
“I know that they do not represent the Russian state, the Russian authorities,” Putin said. “What they did specifically, I have no idea.”
Barack Obama’s chief of staff, meanwhile, told NBC’s Meet the Press that Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell had been responsible for weakening the White House response to the Russian meddling as it was occurring.
“The president asked the four [congressional party] leaders in a bipartisan meeting in the Oval Office to join him in asking the states to work with us on this question,” Denis McDonough said. “It took over three weeks to get that statement worked out. It was dramatically watered down.”
Asked if that was done to satisfy McConnell, McDonough said: “Yes.”
Trump has also been criticised for not doing enough to tackle Russian interference. On Tuesday, Adm Mike Rogers, chief of the National Security Agency chief, told a Senate committee the president had not authorised him to counter Russian cyber-attacks.
“Clearly,” he said, “what we’ve done hasn’t been enough”.
(THE GUARDIAN)
