Lavrov: CIA Chief's Claims of Russian US Election Meddling Goes Beyond Reason

Remarks of the CIA Director Mike Pompeo about alleged Russia involvement in the 2008 and 2012 US elections go beyond reason, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — According to the logic of the remarks made by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Mike Pompeo that Russia interfered in the 2008 and 2012 US elections, the victory of former President Barack Obama was due to the work of Russia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday, stressing that these statements go beyond reason.

On Thursday, Pompeo said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado that Russia had interfered not only in the 2016 presidential election but also "the one before that, and the one before that."

"If [Pompeo's] statements assert that we interfered in the elections of 2008 and 2012, that means that President Obama owes us his victories. I am leaving this without comment. In my opinion, it goes beyond rational thinking," Lavrov said at a joint press conference with Foreign Minister of Sierra Leone Samura Kamara.

In December 2016, the administration of Obama imposed a number of sanctions against Russia over its alleged meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. The former president ordered the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats and the closure of two Russian diplomatic compounds in New York and Maryland.

Russian officials have repeatedly denied these allegations, calling them absurd and created to deflect public opinion from pressing domestic issues.