Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said the Russian government is unconcerned about anything Michael Flynn might say to investigators if he ends up testifying. | Getty Kremlin spokesman: U.S.-Russia relations ‘maybe even worse’ than Cold War

Relations between the U.S. and Russia have devolved to the level of a “new Cold War” or “maybe even worse,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday morning as he denied allegations that the Russian government interfered in last year’s U.S. presidential election.

Echoing comments from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who responded to a question about whether his government had sought to interfere in the 2016 race by saying “Watch my lips: No,” Peskov told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that “we’re 100 percent confident” that Putin’s claim will prove true. He said reports that the Kremlin had sought to swing the election were “propaganda” that he admitted has been effective in convincing the American public.


“For more than a year, American audience have been a target for severe anti-Russian propaganda and, of course, they felt victim of that propaganda and that's why lots of American, they do think that, yes, Russian hackers are everywhere,” Peskov said. “Russian hackers are in every fridge. Russian hackers are in every iron. But this is not true. Those are fake news, and this is slander.”

The reports that Peskov chalked up to propaganda have largely been sourced to the intelligence community, which concluded last fall that the Russian government was to blame for a wave of cyberattacks targeting the Democratic National Committee and other high-profile political individuals, most of them Democrats. Further, the intelligence community said Russia engaged in its cyber campaign with the specific aim of aiding President Donald Trump’s candidacy and installing him in the White House.

Trump, whose softer stance toward Russia has puzzled even those in his own party, has promised to seek cooperation where possible with Moscow and has praised Putin’s leadership. Even after the release of the intelligence community’s report last fall, Trump stubbornly refused to accept that Russia was behind the attacks and took even greater exception to the notion that he was the Kremlin’s preferred candidate.

Peskov, though, confirmed that Putin did indeed favor the president over his challenger, Democrat Hillary Clinton, because of Trump’s more open stance toward Russia. Trump, the Kremlin spokesman explained, took a position “in favor of re-establishing good relationship with Russia” even though “we will not be able to agree upon everything.”

Clinton, according to Peskov, took the position that “Russians are our enemy, and we are strictly against any contacts with them and we don’t give a damn about their interests and we reject any possibility of cooperation even when it is in our own interest, let’s say, in a field of combating terror.”

“So, which one would be more empathetic for you?” Peskov asked ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos. “It's not about preferring someone. It’s about whose ideas are more close to you and whose ideas are more welcomed in Russian public opinion.”

Beyond Trump’s warm rhetoric toward Russia, his administration has been unable to shake yet-unproven speculation that his campaign coordinated with the Kremlin in its efforts to undermine Clinton and aid the president. Former aides to Trump’s campaign, including campaign chairman Paul Manafort, foreign policy adviser Carter Page and longtime adviser Roger Stone, have been tied in one way or another to Russia, and two administration officials, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, have landed in hot water over meetings with the Russian ambassador to the U.S.

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Flynn, who resigned just three weeks after Trump assumed office following revelations that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence and others about the nature of his conversations with the Russian ambassador, has reportedly sought immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony. Russian interference into the 2016 election, as well as any potential involvement by individuals connected to the Trump campaign, is currently the subject of investigations by the FBI and both the House and Senate intelligence committees.

Peskov said the Russian government is unconcerned about anything Flynn, who also delivered a paid speech and shared a table in 2015 with Putin at a Moscow gala for Russian propaganda arm RT, might say to investigators if he ends up testifying.

“Listen, we insist, we insist that any blamings that Russia could have been interfering in domestic affairs of the United States is slander. And it has no evidence at all,” Peskov said. “Again, well, we understand pretty well that there are some people who [are] doing their best, their utmost to keep the issue on the agenda.”