Putin mocks claims that Trump was spied on

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin cracked raunchy jokes on Tuesday as he poked fun at claims that Russian secret services filmed US President-elect Donald Trump with prostitutes.

Showing he is familiar with the claims in the explosive dossier, Putin launched into a series of ribald jokes about prostitutes, riffing on Trump’s former role as owner of the Miss Universe beauty contest.

The unsubstantiated dossier published by American media last week alleged that Russia had gathered compromising information on Trump, namely videos involving prostitutes at a luxury Moscow hotel, supposedly as a potential means for blackmail.

In his first public comments on the claims, Putin rubbished the idea that Russian secret services would have spied on Trump during his 2013 visit to Moscow for the Miss Universe final, as alleged in the dossier.

“Trump when he came to Moscow... wasn’t any kind of political figure, we didn’t even know of his political ambitions,” Putin said, responding to a journalist’s question at a news conference.

“Does anyone think that our special services chase every American billionaire? Of course not, it’s just completely ridiculous.”

Putin also questioned why Trump would feel the need to hire prostitutes, given his opportunities to meet beautiful women at the Miss Universe contest.

“He’s a grown-up for a start and secondly a man who spent his whole life organising beauty contests and meeting the most beautiful women in the world,” Putin said.

“I can hardly imagine that he ran off to a hotel to meet our girls of ‘lowered social responsibility’,” said Putin, adding jokingly “although they are of course the best in the world.

“I doubt Trump fell for that.”

Putin went on to compare those behind the dossier unfavourably with prostitutes.

“The people who order falsifications of the kind that are now circulating against the US president-elect -- they are worse than prostitutes, they don’t have any moral limits at all.”

The fact that such methods are being used against the US president-elect is a unique case: nothing like this has happened before.  “This shows a significant level of degradation of the political elite in the West.”