Vladimir Putin dismisses claims Donald Trump was feeding him intelligence as 'political schizophrenia'

Fiona Simpson17 May 2017

Vladimir Putin branded a scandal surrounding Donald Trump sharing classified intelligence with Russian officials as "political schizophrenia".

The US President came under fire earlier this week after it was revealed that he shared the sensitive intelligence with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian ambassador to the US Sergei Kislyak.

Speaking at a joint news conference with the visiting Italian prime minister on Wednesday, the Russian president said he had "no other explanation" as to why President Trump came under attack other than "political schizophrenia".

Mr Putin then suggested that Russia should share the records of last week's talks between Mr Trump and Mr Lavrov with the US Congress, if the White House approved.

President Putin joked that that he would reprimand Mr Lavrov because "he hasn't shared those secrets with us".

He also lashed out at US politicians whipping up what he described as "anti-Russian sentiment" for being either "stupid" or "dangerous" and said that Moscow initially found debates about Russia's meddling in US politics "funny", but said it is now "concerned because it is hard to imagine what the people who produce such nonsense can come up with next".

Putin also branded the unidentified American politicians as either being "stupid" or "dangerous and unscrupulous", who are wittingly "causing the damage to their own country".

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