--- title: Vladimir Putin: Russia Never Interfered in 2016 Election description: Russian President Vladimir Putin denied any Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election on Thursday canonical: https://time.com/4718173/vladimir-putin-russia-donald-trump-election/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-30T13:07:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:07:07.175Z article:section: Politics og:title: Vladimir Putin Denies Russia Meddled in the Presidential Election og:description: "Read my lips, no" og:url: https://time.com/4718173/vladimir-putin-russia-donald-trump-election/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte58eb3bde1b90438/6988c0940a4a22ab019cd784/vladimir-putin-us-election.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3439 og:image:height: 1934 og:image:alt: Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the International Arctic Forum in Arkhangelsk og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Vladimir Putin Denies Russia Meddled in the Presidential Election twitter:description: "Read my lips, no" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte58eb3bde1b90438/6988c0940a4a22ab019cd784/vladimir-putin-us-election.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'Read My Lips, No.' Vladimir Putin Denies Russia Meddled in the Presidential Election > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Mar 30, 2017 1:07 PM UTC  Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the International Arctic Forum "Arctic: Territory of dialogue", on March 30, 2017 in Arkhangelsk, Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the International Arctic Forum "Arctic: Territory of dialogue", on March 30, 2017 in Arkhangelsk, Russia. Mikhail Svetlov—Getty Images  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Mar 30, 2017 1:07 PM UTC [Russian President Vladimir Putin](http://time.com/4712328/vladimir-putin-marine-le-pen-meeting/) denied any Russian interference in the [2016 U.S. presidential election](http://time.com/collection-post/4566823/top-10-things-the-internet-couldnt-stop-talking-about/item/the-aftermath-of-the-2016-presidential-election/) on Thursday, claiming [any allegations](http://time.com/4605845/donald-trump-russia-election-hack-poll/) are politically motivated lies. “Read my lips, no,” Putin said during a panel moderated by [CNBC](http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/30/putin-russia-trump-us-elections-lies.html). “All those things are fictional, illusory and provocations, lies,” he said. “All these are used for domestic American political agendas.” Putin made the comments, which come as the FBI is investigating Russia’s election interference, during a panel moderated by CNBC co-anchor Geoff Cutmore at the International Arctic Forum in Arkhangelsk, Russia. FBI Director James Comey confirmed at a congressional hearing this month that the FBI was looking into Russian interference during the election, but did not reveal any information about the investigation. Earlier this week, the White House said [Jared Kushner](http://time.com/4629223/who-is-jared-kushner-trump/?iid=sr-link1), President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, would [testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/27/us/politics/senate-jared-kushner-russia.html) as part of its inquiry into the matter. But Putin’s comments echo those of Trump, who has repeatedly taken [to Twitter](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?lang=en) to call allegations of a connection between his campaign and Russia a “hoax.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4718173/vladimir-putin-russia-donald-trump-election/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4718173/vladimir-putin-russia-donald-trump-election/"},"headline":"'Read My Lips, No.' Vladimir Putin Denies Russia Meddled in the Presidential Election","datePublished":"2017-03-30T13:07:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:07:07.175Z","description":"\"All those things are fictional, illusory and provocations, lies\"","url":"https://time.com/4718173/vladimir-putin-russia-donald-trump-election/","keywords":["russia","Vladimir Putin","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte58eb3bde1b90438/6988c0940a4a22ab019cd784/vladimir-putin-us-election.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte58eb3bde1b90438/6988c0940a4a22ab019cd784/vladimir-putin-us-election.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the International Arctic Forum in Arkhangelsk","caption":"Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the International Arctic Forum in Arkhangelsk","creditText":"Mikhail Svetlov—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/russia/","name":"russia"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4718173/vladimir-putin-russia-donald-trump-election/","name":"'Read My Lips, No.' Vladimir Putin Denies Russia Meddled in the Presidential Election"}}]}] ```