US political dramas diverting focus from Russia - Putin
Published:Thursday | November 21, 2019 | 12:23 AM
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin says he’s pleased that the “political battles” in Washington have put on the back-burner accusations that Russia interfered in US elections.
"Thank God,” he told an economic forum in the Russian capital on Wednesday, “no one is accusing us of interfering in the US elections anymore; now they’re accusing Ukraine."
Some Republicans have used the public hearings to tout a discredited conspiracy theory that blames Ukraine, not Russia, for interfering in the US’s 2016 presidential election.
In the impeachment hearings, Democrats in Congress say US President Donald Trump pressured his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to investigate former US Vice President Joe Biden while withholding US military aid to Kyiv, and argue that may be grounds for removing Trump from office.