Trump ‘did not directly accuse’ Putin: Kremlin

The Kremlin yesterday downplayed televised comments by US President Donald Trump that Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin was “probably” involved in assassinations and poisonings, saying they did not amount to a direct accusation.

“The US president didn’t make any direct accusations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists after a CBS News interviewer asked Trump: “Do you agree that Vladimir Putin is involved in assassinations? In poisonings?” and he answered: “Probably he is, yeah.”

Peskov said that in any case there are no grounds for accusations against the Russian president. Russia has insisted two suspects in the nerve agent poisoning of former Russian double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter are ordinary citizens. The Kremlin denounced any attempt to link the events in Salisbury, England to Putin.