Putin: 'Maybe Jews,' Others Behind 2016 Election Meddling

Jews or members of other ethnic groups may be the people who meddled in the 2016 American presidential election, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggests in a new NBC News interview.

"Maybe they're not even Russians," Putin told NBC News' Megyn Kelly in an extensive interview airing Saturday.

"Maybe they're Ukrainians, Tatars, Jews, just with Russian citizenship. Even that needs to be checked. Maybe they have dual citizenship," he said. "Or maybe a green card. Maybe it was the Americans who paid them for this work. How do you know? I don't know."

Putin made the comments while telling Kelly he "couldn't care less" that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation had resulted in indictments against 13 Russian citizens and three companies in connection with interfering with the election, as they were not under the direction of the Kremlin.

"Why have you decided the Russian authorities, myself included, gave anybody permission to do this?" Putin asked Kelly.

Further, he said of the people indicted, it does not matter if they are Russians.

"So what if they're Russians?" Putin said of the suspects, who were indicted in February. "There are 146 million Russians. So what? ... I don't care. I couldn't care less ... They do not represent the interests of the Russian state.

Putin also told Kelly that he has not seen where there was any evidence that Russian law has been broken.

"We in Russia cannot prosecute anyone as long as they have not violated Russian law," he said. "At least send us a piece of paper ... Give us a document. Give us an official request. And we'll take a look at it."

Putin also dismissed the idea that interference in the election came from orders from the Kremlin as "ridiculous."

"Could anyone really believe that Russia, thousands of miles away ... influenced the outcome of the election?" he told Kelly. "Doesn't that sound ridiculous even to you? It's not our goal to interfere. We do not see what goal we would accomplish by interfering. There's no goal."

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