Putin dismisses Russia investigation as ‘yelling and hollering’ by Congress

Russian President Vladimir Putin this week dismissed “yelling and hollering in Congress” over the criminal charges filed in the Justice Department’s Russia probe.

“I have to see first what they’ve done. Give us materials, give us information,” Putin told NBC’s Megan Kelly in an interview for “Nightly News” in Moscow on Friday.

He said Russia could not prosecute those indicted on charges of meddling in the U.S. presidential election unless the U.S. presented them with hard evidence. 

Special counsel Robert Mueller last month indicted 13 Russian nationals and three entities allegedly involved in the Moscow-backed effort to spread propaganda and polarizing political content to sway the 2016 election. 

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Putin has denied that Russia attempted to interfere with the election. He maintained in the interview that to do anything with the indictments would take an official request to the nation’s top attorney. 

“The list has to go through official channels, not through the press or yelling and hollering in the United States Congress,” he said. 

In the first part of the interview on Thursday, Putin also dismissed claims of a new “cold war” as “propaganda.”