During a conversation with Megyn Kelly, Vladimir Putin said that Democrats and other critics need to stop with their “nonsense” and “idle prattle” about how he ordered a campaign to mess with the 2016 election.

Putin spoke with Kelly at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, where he talked about Russia’s need to protect its interests and national sovereignty. In time, Kelly brought up how the United States and other nations have repeatedly accused Russia of meddling with their sovereignty by launching cyber campaigns to impact foreign politics.

Kelly also noted that hacking and disinformation campaigns often entail a multitude of factors, and the intelligence community say that the indications point to Russian perpetrators.

Putin responded that there was no proof when hackers can launch their cyberattacks while disguising their digital footprints to implicate Russia. Putin went on to say that President Trump was the most efficient candidate during the election, and Democrats would rather say that Russia intervened instead of admitting that their policies didn’t resonate with voters.

“[The Democrats] made a mistake and they don’t want to recognize this mistake right now,” said Putin. “IP addresses can be invented, a child can do that! Your underage daughter could do that. That is not proof.”

Putin went on to say that the allegations against Russia lack any major substance, and that improper behavior within the Democratic Party that was the real issue at hand. He also stated that blaming Russia and accusing them of disinformation “reminds me of anti-Semitism and blaming the Jews. This is disinformation.”

Putin also went on to talk about Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, and also about his previous insistence that his government has never commissioned “state-level” hacking against a foreign government.

Kelly’s new NBC show premieres on Sunday, and it will start with an exclusive interview with Putin.

Watch above, via MSNBC.

[Image via screengrab]

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