Vladimir Putin DENIES having secret stash of ‘compromising material’ on Trump during summit

VLADIMIR Putin has today laughed off “nonsense” claims that Russia has “comprising material” on Donald Trump.

Speaking during the pair’s summit in Helsinki, the Russian President responded to a question about the so-called “dirty dossier” which was compiled by British former spy Christopher Steele.

The unsubstantiated document, which emerged last year, contained lurid allegations relating to Trump’s 2013 visit to Moscow.

Putin called the claims that the Kremlin possesses material, which according to the dossier includes a video tape, showing the US President cavorting with prostitutes in a hotel room as a “rumour.”

The strongman leader insisted he did not even know about Trump’s trip – which he made while hosting a beauty contest in Moscow.

He said: “I've heard about us allegedly collecting compromising material on him when he came to Moscow.

“When he came to Moscow I didn't even know he was there.

"It's hard to imagine more nonsense. Throw this rubbish out of your head.

"I treat President Trump with utmost respect but back then nobody informed me that he was in Moscow.

"I was an intelligence officer myself and know how these dossiers are put together."

Last year, it emerged that the Steele dossier had been handed to the FBI by Senator John McCain – a vocal critic of Trump.

Following Putin’s dismissal of the allegations, Trump’s called the claims a “witch hunt.”

He said: “If they (Russia) had anything on me it would have been out long ago.

“It (the allegations) was a disgrace to the FBI, our country, and it was a total witch-hunt."

The meeting came after Putin left Trump waiting for 45 minutes and the US President claimed America's relationship with Russia had never been worse.

At a brief photo op prior to the meeting, Trump had said: "We have a lot of good things to talk about. Military, missiles, China our mutual friend president Xi. We have great opportunities together.

"We have not been getting along very well over the past years. I feel we’ll have an extraordinary relationship - getting along with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing."

Their private meeting lasted roughly two hours, after which Trump was asked how it went and replied: "I think it's a good start. A very, very good start for everybody.

"The world want to see us getting along, we have 90 per cent of the nuclear, this is not a good thing, it’s a bad thing. It’s a negative force. We’ll be talking about that."

Trump had earlier attacked the ongoing FBI investigation into Russian election interference, dubbing it a "Rigged Witch Hunt" in a series of tweets.

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