--- title: Putin Insists He Has No Compromising Information on Trump description: Putin insisted that he had no compromising information about President Donald Trump. canonical: https://time.com/5340333/vladimir-putin-fox-news-helsinki-chris-wallace/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-07-17T00:01:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T20:52:00.309Z article:section: Politics og:title: Putin Again Insists He Has No Compromising Information on Trump og:description: Putin insisted that he had no compromising information about President Donald Trump. og:url: https://time.com/5340333/vladimir-putin-fox-news-helsinki-chris-wallace/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta7792532539c966b/698935857cdbac57bad5d6cd/wallaceputin2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2016 og:image:height: 1134 og:image:alt: Chris Wallace Interviews Vladimir Putin og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Putin Again Insists He Has No Compromising Information on Trump twitter:description: Putin insisted that he had no compromising information about President Donald Trump. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta7792532539c966b/698935857cdbac57bad5d6cd/wallaceputin2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Vladimir Putin Again Insists He Has No Compromising Information on President Trump > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### 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. ## Video: Both Trump and Putin Just Denied Russian Meddling in the 2016 Election. Here's What They Said [Watch (HLS stream): Both Trump and Putin Just Denied Russian Meddling in the 2016 Election. Here's What They Said](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/cWwhbNrF.m3u8) (2:38)  _Published 2018-07-16. Trump resisted when asked Monday to condemn Russian meddling in the election. Instead, he complained about a Democratic National Committee computer server and emails belonging to Hillary Clinton, the Democrat he defeated to win the presidency._  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Jul 17, 2018 12:01 AM UTC  Fox News anchor Chris Wallace interviews Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland on uly 16, 2018. Fox News anchor Chris Wallace interviews Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland on uly 16, 2018. Courtesy Fox News  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Jul 17, 2018 12:01 AM UTC Russian President Vladimir Putin Monday once again denied anyone from his country attempted to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, and insisted that he had no compromising information about President Donald Trump. “We don’t have anything on them, and there can’t be anything on them,” Putin told Fox News’ Chris Wallace Monday night. “I don’t want to insult President Trump when I say this — and I may come as rude — but before he announced that he will run for presidency, he was of no interest for us.” Putin’s assertion, which is similar to a response from a comparable question earlier in the day, directly contradicts the infamous [“Steele dossier,”](http://time.com/4634238/christopher-steele-author-donald-trump-dossier-spy/) a 35-page research document, largely unsubstantiated, that was compiled by British spy Christopher Steele during the Presidential election that details compromising information the Russian government may have collected about Trump. Wallace interviewed Putin right after his two-hour summit with President Trump in Helsinki. At the press conference following the meeting, [Trump declined to support the intelligence community’s](http://time.com/5340050/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit-helsinki-analysis/) findings that Russia had meddled in the 2016 presidential election on the basis of Putin’s denial. “I have confidence in both parties,” Trump said during the press conference, a response that prompted a rebuke from both sides of the aisle. The summit, which was controversial to begin with, came just three days after [Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein indicted 12 Russian nationals](http://time.com/5338172/rod-rosenstein-russian-hacking-charges/) for conspiring to interfere in the 2016 presidential election – including the hackings of the Democratic National Committee, Hillary Clinton campaign employee’s emails and state election systems. Wallace held up the indictment during the interview, highlighting the details of the indictments, and asked Putin if he wanted to read it, a request he promptly declined. Putin subsequently reiterated that Russia had no ability to actually influence votes, and that the real issue at hand was the fact that the content of the emails revealed the DNC officials were biased towards Clinton. “They admitted the fact of their manipulations. So, that’s one thing — that manipulation is where public opinion should stop, and an apology should be made to the public at large— instead of looking for the responsible — the party at fault,” he said. Putin told Wallace he was optimistic that he and Trump could forge a better diplomatic relationship after Monday’s meeting, and reach consensus on issues like the denuclearization of North Korea and the START treaty, which is set to expire in 2021. “We are starting to achieve some understanding which gives us sufficient ground to say that some things — a lot of things changed to the better during today’s meeting,” he said. “I think this is the beginning of the path. This is the start. We did make a good start today.” ## Transcript Once again president Trump mentioned the issue of the so called interference of Russia when the American elections. And I had to literate things I said several times including during out personal context that the Russian state has never interfered and it's not going to interfere Into internal American affairs, including election process. During today's meeting, I addressed directly with President Putin the issue of Russian interference in our elections. I felt this was a message best delivered in person, spent a great deal of time talking about it. And President Putin may very well want to address it and very strongly. Because he feels very strongly about it and he has an interesting idea. To say it one time again and I say it all the time, there was no collusion. I didn't even know the President. There was nobody to collude with. There was no collusion with the campaign and every time you hear these you know all of these twelve and fourteen and frankly they admit these are not people involved in the campaign. But to the average reader maybe it does. It doesn't. I think that the probe is a disaster for our country. I think it's kept us apart. It's kept us separated. There was no collusion at all. Everybody knows it. People are being brought out to the floor. So far, that I know, virtually none of it related to the campaign. And they're gonna have to try really hard to find somebody that did relate to the campaign. It was a clean campaign. Zero collusion. And it has had a negative impact upon the relationship of the two largest nuclear powers in the world. We have 90 % of nuclear power between the two countries. It's ridiculous, it's ridiculous what's going on with the probe. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5340333/vladimir-putin-fox-news-helsinki-chris-wallace/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5340333/vladimir-putin-fox-news-helsinki-chris-wallace/"},"headline":"Vladimir Putin Again Insists He Has No Compromising Information on President Trump","datePublished":"2018-07-17T00:01:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T20:52:00.309Z","description":"\"We don't have anything on them, and there can't be anything on them\"","url":"https://time.com/5340333/vladimir-putin-fox-news-helsinki-chris-wallace/","keywords":["White House","russia","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta7792532539c966b/698935857cdbac57bad5d6cd/wallaceputin2.jpeg?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/blta7792532539c966b/698935857cdbac57bad5d6cd/wallaceputin2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Chris Wallace Interviews Vladimir Putin","caption":"Fox News anchor Chris Wallace interviews Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland on uly 16, 2018.","creditText":"Courtesy Fox News","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/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5340333/vladimir-putin-fox-news-helsinki-chris-wallace/","name":"Vladimir Putin Again Insists He Has No Compromising Information on President Trump"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Both Trump and Putin Just Denied Russian Meddling in the 2016 Election. 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