MOSCOW, February 21. /TASS/: The Kremlin expects that as the US presidential election approaches, there will be an increasing number of reports about Russia’s alleged attempts to interfere in the vote, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, commenting on a New York Time article claiming that Moscow "was interfering in the 2020 campaign to try to get President Trump re-elected."
"This is another in a series of paranoid reports, and we regret to say that their number will grow as the election approaches. They certainly have nothing to do with the truth," he pointed out.
According to the New York Times, "intelligence officials warned House lawmakers" about Russia’s alleged election interference at a classified briefing, which "angered Mr. Trump, who complained that Democrats would use it against him."
"The day after the February 13 briefing to lawmakers, the president berated Joseph Maguire, the outgoing acting director of national intelligence, for allowing it to take place, people familiar with the exchange said," the newspaper pointed out. The US president later "announced that he was replacing Mr. Maguire with Richard Grenell, the ambassador to Germany and an aggressively vocal Trump supporter."
US intelligence continues to accuse Russia of interfering in the American political process in 2016. An investigation into Moscow’s alleged interference, led by ex-FBI Director Robert Mueller, took almost two years to complete. Mueller eventually announced that there had been no collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia. Moscow has also repeatedly refuted these allegations.
