MOSCOW — The Kremlin said on Monday that it was “absurd” to suggest that President Vladimir V. Putin was influenced in any way by a request from the Trump transition last December to refrain from retaliating against sanctions imposed by President Barack Obama over Russian meddling in the election.

“The president makes his own decisions, guided solely by Russia’s national interests,” said the Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov.

President Donald J. Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, pleaded guilty last week to lying to the F.B.I. about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador to Washington at the time, Sergey I. Kislyak. In court papers released as part of the plea agreement, he said he had urged the Kremlin to hold its fire.

Mr. Kislyak later told Mr. Flynn that Russia had chosen “to moderate its response to those sanctions as a result of his request,” according to the court documents. On Dec. 30, despite widespread expectations of a tough retaliation that had already been announced by the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, Mr. Putin released a statement saying that Russia will not respond in kind.