Putin: Trump dossier by British spy an 'obvious fabrication'

Vladimir Putin has denied that Russian secret services would have spied on Donald Trump, in his first public comments on the explosive allegations.

He described a dossier compiled by a British former spy which claimed that the Kremlin has compromising information about the President-elect as an "obvious fabrication".

The Russian President also questioned why Mr Trump would have need to hire prostitutes, as the dossier claimed.

The document, written by ex-MI6 officer Christopher Steele, claimed Russian spies filmed Mr Trump with the prostitutes in a Moscow hotel in order to get information to blackmail him.

Mr Putin said: "Trump when he came to Moscow... wasn't any kind of political figure, we didn't even know of his political ambitions.

"He's a grown-up for a start and secondly a man who spent his whole life organising beauty contests and meeting the most beautiful women in the world.

"I can hardly imagine that he ran off to a hotel to meet our girls of 'lowered social responsibility'," said Putin, adding jokingly "although they are of course the best in the world.

"I doubt Trump fell for that."

He said anyone who was circulating "falsifications" against the President-elect, who is inaugurated on Friday, was "worse than prostitutes. They don't have any moral limits at all".

Mr Putin told the news conference in Moscow, following talks with Moldova's president, he has no interests in defending Mr Trump.

"I don't know Mr Trump. I have never met him and I don't know what he will do on the international arena," Mr Putin said.

Mr Trump said last week he had warned his own staff about secret cameras during the visit to Moscow when he was alleged to have been recorded in 2013.

That year, the President-elect was in town for the Miss Universe beauty pageant - an event he ran until 2015.

Earlier, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov hit out at former British spy Christopher Steele, describing him as a "charlatan".

The minister told a press conference that US intelligence agencies who had tried to prove Mr Trump had links to Russia have drawn a blank and should be fired.

Mr Trump has also dismissed the dossier, saying it was "made up" and based on "phony facts".

Sky News has not been able to verify the authenticity or veracity of the dossier and is unable to substantiate the claims made within it.

Mr Lavrov said Moscow is inviting representatives of the incoming US administration to attend talks on Syria in Kazakhstan on Monday which will also involve representatives of Turkey and Iran.

He said Russia was ready to sit down for nuclear arms talks with the US.

On Monday, Mr Trump indicated he could end sanctions imposed on Russia following its 2014 annexation of Crimea in return for a nuclear arms reduction deal.

:: Watch live coverage of the inauguration on Sky News from 3pm and Sky Atlantic from 4pm on 20 January. Adam Boulton is in the US presenting a special Sky News programme - Trump: America's President - every day at midnight from now until Friday.

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