(CNN) A former US ambassador to Russia said Russian President Vladimir Putin was "probably joyful" about -- and may have enabled -- the conspiracy theory circulated by some Republicans that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 elections.

"He's probably joyful that he has the world talking about something he may have been behind," former Ambassador Jon Huntsman told The Associated Press of Putin in an interview published Friday. "That's the way they operate in Moscow, to try to sow seeds of discontent between the United States and Kiev."

The criticism from Huntsman, President Donald Trump's own nominee , comes as Trump and several of his allies have propagated the conspiracy theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election as the impeachment inquiry into the President intensifies.

Huntsman, who resigned in October , is not alone in pushing back on the Ukraine hypothesis. At least nine witnesses in the impeachment inquiry testified that claims of Ukrainian meddling in 2016 were fabricated by the Russians or unsupported by evidence. Others said they weren't aware of anything to corroborate these claims.

But the unsupported assertions of Ukrainian involvement are widespread. House Republicans' report analyzing impeachment inquiry evidence thus far asserted that "senior Ukrainian government officials worked in 2016 to support Secretary (Hillary) Clinton." Claims of such a top-down effort by the Ukrainian government to defeat Trump are not supported by the evidence.

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