Russian President Vladimir Putin has criticized the war of words in the U.S. presidential campaign over his leadership and knocked back accusations that his government was behind a hacking campaign to influence the elections.
Answering a question from CNBC's Geoff Cutmore at VTB Bank's "Russia Calling" investment forum on Wednesday, Putin said that nothing in the hacking scandal was in the interest of Russia, adding that members of the campaign were exploiting Russian relations to win the election.
On Sunday, Hillary Clinton said that attempts by the Kremlin to influence the U.S. presidential election are designed to help Donald Trump, whom she accused of being close to Putin. This followed a formal accusation on Friday from the U.S. administration which blamed Russia for recent political hacking attacks, saying they were "intended to interfere with the U.S. election process."
"Here's your answer to the question about the hacker attacks," Putin, speaking through an interpreter, told delegates Wednesday.
"After all, what are we observing? Certain hackers have released certain information about how unseemly Mrs. Clinton's headquarters have been behaving during the election campaign.
"They have been supporting one party candidate at the expense of another. And then this hysteria started that this was done in the interests of Russia. There is nothing there that is in Russia's interests."
"One cannot exploit Russia to win the Presidential campaign," Putin, speaking through an interpreter, told delegates.
U.S. intelligence officials said they are "confident" that the Russian government directed those attacks on American political organizations, the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Election Security said Friday in a joint statement.
Putin added that whatever the outcome of the election, Russia would work with the next President and reiterated his stance that the U.S. people would make the choice that they believe is important in the upcoming elections.
"I've already spoken a lot about how the American people are making the choice that they consider needs to be done and whatever the result, we will be working with the whoever the leader of the USA will be," he told delegates.
"No matter who this leader, no matter who this president will be."
—CNBC's Christine Wang contributed to this article.