Russian President Vladimir Putin
Russian President Vladimir PutinThinkstock


Russian president Vladimir Putin came to the help of his media-beleagured American counterpart, Donald Trump, who has come under attack over claims that he leaked classified intelligence information during the course of his meeting with the Russian foreign minister and Russian ambassador in Washington.

Putin said Wednesday that Trump had not revealed any classified information during the meeting with the Russian ambassador and suggested transferring to Congress the transcript of the meeting.

In a joint press conference with the Italian prime minister which took place in the city of Sochi, Putin said that "political schizophrenia' was developing in the US and that "dangerous" American politicians were trying to create an anti-Russian sentiment.

Putin joked that if indeed his foreign minister had been privy to classified information, he would have to reprimand him because he had not reported to Putin about such information.

"I spoke to him (Lavrov) today," said Putin with a smile. "I'll be forced to issue him with a reprimand because he did not share these secrets with us. Not with me, nor with representatives of Russia's intelligence services. It was very bad of him," said Putin, causing the foreign minister and others present to laugh.

Putin said that he didn't yet want to judge President Trump's functioning as president and he would only do this when Trump was allowed to do his job properly.

As for the claims that Russia had intervened in the American election, Putin said that at first he found these "amusing" but at present Moscow is worried, because "it’s hard to imagine what else the people who generate such nonsense and rubbish can dream up next,”