MOSCOW: Russia on Friday once more dismissed the Mueller report, saying it failed to present clear evidence of any meddling by Moscow in the 2016 US election and called its impact on relations regrettable.
"As a whole the report as before does not present any reasonable proof at all that Russia allegedly meddled in the electoral process in the US," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists, saying it contained "no new information." Russia has consistently rejected any suggestion that it interfered in the election won by Donald Trump.
The politically explosive probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller ruled that Trump's campaign did not criminally conspire with Russians to skew the election, and drew no conclusion on allegations of obstruction. "We regret that documents of such quality have a direct influence on the development of US-Russian bilateral relations which are not in the best shape as it is," Peskov said.
He even suggested that US taxpayers should question why their money was spent on the lengthy probe with such a result. "In our country, the Audit Chamber would probably take an interest in such a report: what did American taxpayers' money get spent on? But let the US taxpayers themselves ask that question," Peskov added.