It is known in the industry as a “good get.” Fox News anchor Chris Wallace has landed an exclusive interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin, to be conducted Monday after the summit with President Trump in Helsinki. The exchange will mark Mr. Putin’s first engagement with an American journalist in over a year. “Immediately after the summit, I will have the first and only interview that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will give to Western journalists,” Mr. Wallace said in an interview with his own network. “We’re going to sit down for a half-hour, no holds barred, no subjects off limits,” he noted. The veteran newsman also said he will focus on the summit itself and any potential breakthroughs, along with the status of Syria, assorted claims of Russian “meddling” in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the potential for interference in the 2018 midterms, and global arms control. The anchorman and host of “Fox News Sunday” also will ask Mr. Putin a more personal question. “I want to delve into Vladimir Putin and what he wants for his country,”Mr. Wallace said. The interview will be presented in its entirety on Fox News Channel on Monday. Mr. Putin last spoke with Mr. Wallace 13 years ago; the upcoming encounter between the two will be the Russian leader’s first interview with the U.S. news media since June 2017. Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters Copyright © 2021 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.<doc-sep>Russian President Vladimir Putin asserted that his nation is not in possession of any compromising information on President Donald Trump. | Yuri Kadobnov/AFP/Getty Images Putin tussles with Chris Wallace in Fox interview Russian President Vladimir Putin sparred Monday with Fox News anchor Chris Wallace over allegations that the Kremlin sought to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, with Putin declining to address the contents of a federal indictment against a dozen Russian military officials and arguing that there was no “rigging of facts” within the information allegedly leaked by the Russian government. Wallace, in a roughly half-hour sit-down with Putin on Monday, presented the Russian president with a copy of the indictment announced last week by the Justice Department accusing 12 individuals from Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency of hacking into Democratic Party organizations and the campaign of Hillary Clinton and disseminating information from those cyberattacks. Putin refused to accept the printed-out indictment, which Wallace put on the table next to him. The Russian president, for his part, quickly grew exasperated with Wallace’s probing questions on the issue, repeatedly asking the Fox News host for the opportunity to finish his answer. While he continued to deny that his government did not interfere in the 2016 presidential election, Putin argued that because the hacked information was real — released emails from the Democratic National Committee prompted the resignation of its then-chairwoman — the U.S. public should direct its frustration at the Democratic Party. “Was it some rigging of facts? Was it some forgery of facts?... Any false information planted? No. It wasn't,” said Putin, who spoke to Wallace through a translator. “They hacked a certain email account, and there was information about manipulations conducted within the Democratic Party to incline the process in favor of one candidate. And as far as I know, the entire party leadership resigned. “That manipulation is where public opinion should stop, and an apology should be made to the public at large instead of looking for the responsible — the party at fault,” the Russian president continued. Russia’s alleged efforts to interfere in the election, as well as allegations that the campaign of President Donald Trump colluded in those efforts, are the subject of an investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller. Trump has regularly characterized Mueller’s investigation as a “witch hunt,” and at a Monday press conference with Putin in Helsinki, he said the probe is a “disaster” for the U.S. Trump also said at Monday’s press conference that “I don’t see any reason why” Russia would attempt to interfere in the 2016 election, appearing to take the word of Putin over that of the U.S. intelligence community, which has assessed with “high confidence” that Putin ordered the election interference efforts. The Russian president also asserted that his nation is not in possession of any compromising information on Trump, contradicting a claim made in a dossier of salacious but unverified intelligence compiled by a former British spy, who claimed that the Kremlin has video of Trump engaging in lewd acts with Russian prostitutes inside a Moscow hotel room. Trump has denied the allegations in the dossier, and he and his allies have slammed it as a completely false attempt to undermine his presidency. But Trump’s apparent willingness to follow Putin’s lead Monday during the pair’s bilateral meeting prompted critics of the president, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, to once again raise the possibility that the Russian government might in some way be influencing Trump. “We don’t have anything on them, and there can’t be anything on them,” Putin said in the Fox interview. “I don’t want to insult President Trump when I say this — and I may come as rude — but before he announced that he will run for presidency, he was of no interest for us.”<doc-sep>PUTIN (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Well, first of all, all of us have plenty of political rivals. I’m pretty sure President Trump has plenty of political rivals. WALLACE: But they don’t end up dead. PUTIN: Well, not always — well, haven’t presidents been killed in the United States? Have you forgotten about — well, has Kennedy been killed in Russia or in the United States? Or Mr. King? What — and what happens to the clashes between police and, well, civil society, and some — several ethnic groups? Well, that’s something that happens on the U.S. soil. All of us have our own set of domestic problems. But going back to what happened in Russia, yes. We do have crime and we unfortunately — there are some crimes. And to some extent, Russia’s statehood is maturing. And there are some side effects. And we prosecute people responsible for these crimes. But since you’ve mentioned the Skripal case, we would like to get at least some sort of a document, evidence about it. But nobody gives it to us. It’s the same thing as the accusations with meddling into the election process in America. We recently heard that two more people suffered from the same nerve agent that is called Novichok. I have never even heard the last names of these persons. Who are they? What — WALLACE: Supposedly they picked up the bottle that was used to attack Skripal.<doc-sep>
Fox News anchor Chris Wallace said Monday that he asked Russian President Vladimir Putin why people who oppose the former KGB head seem to end up either dead or near death. Wallace said on Fox News that he asked Putin in an interview, “Why do so many of your political opponents end up dead or close to it?” He called the sit down, which airs Monday night, with Putin “one of the more remarkable interviews” he’s ever had. The interview took place shortly after Putin denied having any compromising information on President Donald Trump during a joint press conference with the U.S. president Monday. Wallace said he also gave the Russian president a copy of the indictment against 12 Russians allegedly involved in hacking former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails. Putin refused to accept the document, according to Wallace. The president refused to acknowledge that Russian agents attempted to interfere with the 2016 presidential election, causing many within his own party to throw criticism his way. Trump was expected to take a hard line against Putin and address election interference and other topics, like the Russian annexation of Crimea, during the press conference, but he punted. (RELATED: Trump Talks Putin Election Meddling) Republicans and Democrats legislators condemned Trump following the press conference, calling out the president for looking weak and throwing their support behind special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Follow Chris White on Facebook and Twitter Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.