Putin: 'Stupid' Trump critics are creating 'anti-Russian sentiment'

Russian President Vladimir Putin has hit out at US politicians for whipping up ‘anti-Russian sentiment’ and branded them ‘stupid’.

The furious claim during a press conference earlier today, in which Putin said he was able to provide a record of the exchange between Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US President Donald Trump, who is accused of leaking classified intelligence.

Mr Putin told the assembled media: ‘If the US administration finds it possible, we are ready to provide a recording of the conversation between Lavrov and Trump to the US Congress and Senate.’

Speaking later, he clarified that the record of the conversation was a transcript and not an audio recording.

He also dismissed claims that Russia is directly involved in U.S. politics as ‘funny’ but said Moscow was now ‘concerned’ because they feared the ‘nonsense’ claims that could potentially follow.

Last week, President Donald Trump reportedly shared highly classified intelligence with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in an Oval Office meeting.

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On Monday, US officials told The Washington Post that Trump’s disclosures to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak threatened to jeopardise a key source of intelligence about Islamic State terror cells, because the source had not given the US permission to share the intelligence with Russia.

Trump is yet to respond directly to Putin’s latest claims.