In an interview on Monday with Fox News' Chris Wallace following a meeting with Donald Trump in Helsinki, Finland, Vladimir Putin said: "We don't have anything on them, and there can't be anything on them. I don't want to insult President Trump when I say this -- and I may come across as rude -- but before he announced that he will run for presidency, he was of no interest for us. He was a rich person, but, well, there's plenty of rich persons in the United States."
In the 32-minute interview with Fox, Putin said Russia had no interest in Mr. Trump before he launched his bid for the presidency.
"He was in the construction business. He organized the beauty pageants. But no, it would never occur to anyone that he would think of running for president. He never mentioned his political ambitions. It sounds like it's utter nonsense," Putin said.
Mr. Trump and Putin held a joint press conference Monday afternoon after meeting one-on-one in the Finnish capital. Mr. Trump seemed to accept Putin's denial of interference, despite the U.S. intelligence community's conclusion that Russia did in fact meddle in the 2016 election.
Wallace read Putin a portion of the indictment handed down by a federal grand jury last week in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation that accused 12 Russian intelligence officers of breaking into Democratic computer systems and stealing emails and documents.
Putin smiled and laughed. Wallace then offered the document to Putin, but the Russian president signaled for him to place it down on a nearby table.
