On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called Donald Trump's political foes "worse than prostitutes" for disseminating a dubiously-sourced dossier last week stating a relationship between the Kremlin and Trump.
During a news conference, Vladimir Putin said last week's leak of the 35-page report was a last-ditch attempt on the part of Barack Obama's outgoing government to "undermine the legitimacy of the president-elect."
"Prostitution is an ugly social phenomenon . . . but people who order such fakes, which are now used against the elected president of the United States, fabricate information and use this information in the political struggle, they are worse than prostitutes," Putin declared, according to a translation by Sputnik News. "They do not have moral limits."
Trump was not a politician when he went to Moscow
The memos alleged that Russian intelligence had recorded embarrassing footage of Trump in an attempt to compromise him. Putin dismissed that claim as "an obvious fake."
Putin stated: "Trump, when he came to Moscow a few years ago, was not a politician," "We did not even know about his political ambitions," "Trump was just a businessman, one of the richest men in America. Is someone really thinking that our intelligence agencies are chasing every American billionaire, or what? Of course not. This is just a complete nonsense."
The Russian President made a comparison with Maidan
Putin declared that some people seem "ready to organize a 'Maidan' in Washington," in reference to the alleged U.S. role in organizing protests in Maidan, the main square of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. That action helped oust the nation's Russia-friendly president from power in 2014.
Putin mentioned two goals he believed were behind the leaking of the allegations: Undermine Trump's "legitimacy" and tie the hands and legs of Trump related to the implementation of his pre-election campaign promises to the American people and the international community.
