Moscow continues to ridicule allegations in leaked dossier that it had gathered compromising material on Donald Trump

Moscow has continued to dismiss allegations that it gathered compromising material on the US president elect, Donald Trump, describing the behaviour attributed to Russian officials in a dossier published this week as akin to the Queen recruiting somebody while out shopping.

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At a packed media briefing on Thursday, foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the claims in the dossier were absurd.

The dossier, which was prepared by a former British intelligence agent, contained allegations that Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov controlled information collected on Hillary Clinton and had overseen interference in the US presidential election to assist Trump.

“This shows that the people who did this, I can’t say what objectives they were pursuing, but they absolutely don’t understand what those who figured in this report actually do. This is a complete break from reality,” Zakharova said in response to questions about the dossier from the Guardian. “It’s the same as saying, I don’t know, that the Queen of Great Britain was recruiting somebody in an all-night convenience store in Moscow. It’s on that level.”

“I don’t think CNN’s goal to tell the whole world that Trump is a Russian spy succeeded,” she said at another point.

Also on Thursday, parliamentary secretary Igor Divyekin denied that he had met former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page in Moscow, as was also alleged in the dossier. The dossier contained allegations that Divyekin, who was at the time deputy head of the domestic politics department of Putin’s administration, had raised the idea of giving compromising material on Clinton to Trump’s team. He also allegedly hinted that Moscow had compromising material on Trump.

“I don’t comment on foolishness and made-up stories. I never knew this person and did not even suspect his existence. Foreign policy questions were never part of my purview,” Divyekin told Interfax news agency. He threatened to sue media organisations that publish reports on the subject.

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Peskov, the presidential spokesman, said he hoped that the incoming US president would get on better with Putin than Obama did.

“At least Trump has spoken of his readiness for dialogue,” he said. “This doesn’t mean there’s a readiness to agree about everything with each other. That is hardly possible, and Moscow isn’t expecting that, but dialogue is grounds for hope and could help us find a way out of many complex situations.”

Peskov also said there should be more mutual respect between Russia and the US.

Zakharova said Russia was willing to revamp ties with both the US and Canada, where Chrystia Freeland, a journalist often critical of the Kremlin, was sworn in as foreign affairs minister on Tuesday. Freeland was banned from Russia after Canada imposed sanctions on the country in 2014. A report in Russian state media this week suggested she could only be removed from Russia’s sanctions list if there was a “mirror response” from Ottawa, an idea Canada rejected. Freeland had been sanctioned as a journalist, not as foreign affairs minister, Zakharova said.

“With Canada, with the United States, we are ready for an improvement of relations and dialogue. We have been ready,” Zakharova said. “That’s our principal approach.”

She added that Obama’s policies had been disastrous, and “whatever they say, whatever farewell tweets they write, it is a fiasco”.

Zakharova also derided US intelligence agencies’ findings published last week that Russia interfered in the presidential election through hacking, propaganda and fake news, saying their report had a “loud title, but meagre content”. She accused western media of running an “information carousel” in which unsubstantiated leaked information is built up and comes to influence countries’ policies.