Vladimir Poutine considered "grotesque" to consider that Moscow is waging a computer war against the United States, in an interview with the NBC channel broadcast on Monday the day before his meeting in Geneva with his American counterpart Joe Biden.

"We have been accused of all sorts of things" including "interference in elections" or "cyber attacks," said the Russian president, saying that "not once have they bothered to produce the slightest proof ”.

A prisoner exchange envisaged

Several large companies, such as meat giant JBS or the operator of a huge US oil pipeline, Colonial Pipeline, have recently fallen victim to ransomware cyber attacks attributed to Russian-based hacker groups. In early June, Joe Biden said he was not ruling out possible retaliation against Russia after the JBS hack, and the White House said he would raise US concerns at the June 16 summit, the first to bring together the two presidents.

During this interview with the American channel, the Russian president also spoke about a possible exchange of prisoners between Russia and the United States, showing himself open to such a possibility.

"Yes, yes, yes of course," he replied to a question about the possible simultaneous release of Americans imprisoned in Russia, Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed, and Russians detained in the United States.

"We don't have that kind of habit of murdering anyone"

Former non-commissioned officer of the Marine Corps, Paul Whelan was a security services officer for an American auto parts group when he was arrested in Moscow in December 2018, then sentenced in June 2020 to 16 years in prison. on charges of espionage.

He recently called on Joe Biden to organize a prisoner swap to secure his release, saying he was a victim of "hostage diplomacy" in an interview with CNN.

Trevor Reed was sentenced in July 2019 to 9 years in prison for assaulting, drunk, two Russian police officers.

The families of two Russians imprisoned in the United States, arms dealer Viktor Bout and a Russian pilot accused of cocaine trafficking, Konstantin Yarochenko, have also called for their release.

Asked about the case of the imprisoned Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny, whose situation worries the international community, Poutine repeated that he would not be "treated worse than anyone else".

"We don't have that kind of habit of murdering anyone," Putin replied when the journalist asked him if he had ordered an attempted murder on Alexei Navalny.

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