In first official comments since last week’s indictment, the Kremlin dismissed on Monday Washington’s accusations that Moscow had meddled in the 2016 US presidential election campaign.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that there was no proof for Washington to support its claims, saying the indictment centered on individuals rather than the Russian state.
"They are talking about Russian citizens, but we have heard in announcements from Washington accusations about the involvement of the Russian state, the Kremlin and the Russian government," he told reporters on a conference call.
"There are no indications that the Russian state could have been involved in this and nor can there be any. Russia did not meddle, does not have the habit of meddling in the internal affairs of other countries, and is not doing so now."
"As before, we insist that we consider such evidence groundless, we don't consider it exhaustive or fair at all and we cannot agree with it."
The office of US Special Counsel Robert Mueller charged on Friday 13 Russians and three Russian companies with interfering in the election campaign.
The indictment said that a Russian propaganda arm oversaw a criminal and espionage conspiracy to tamper in the 2016 US presidential campaign to support Donald Trump and disparage Hillary Clinton.
It alleges that a campaign directed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, became focused on hurting Clinton and helping Trump swing the vote. The effort allegedly involved hundreds of people working in shifts and with a budget of millions of dollars.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday dismissed the indictments as "blabber" and "fantasies," speaking at the Munich Security Conference.
