Putin, Merkel spar over election meddling; Trump, Putin talk

Speaking during a joint news conference following talks at his Black Sea residence, Putin said accusations of meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election were “simply rumors” that were being used as part of the political fight in Washington.

U.S. intelligence agencies say they have definitive evidence that Russia was behind the hacking of Democratic email accounts, with the aim of benefiting Donald Trump’s campaign and harming his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

In one instance, Russian state media and the foreign minister claimed that a 13-year-old girl of Russian origin had been kidnapped and raped by asylum seekers in Berlin, and that German authorities were covering up the case.

Merkel has been a staunch supporter of the sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russia over its annexation of Crimea and support for the rebels fighting government troops in eastern Ukraine.

The peace deal brokered by Germany and France in 2015 has helped reduce the scale of the fighting, but violence has continued and attempts to reach a political settlement have failed.