{"id":66970,"date":"2017-06-15T08:28:49","date_gmt":"2017-06-15T15:28:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=66970"},"modified":"2017-06-15T08:28:49","modified_gmt":"2017-06-15T15:28:49","slug":"putin-russia-ready-to-grant-asylum-to-comey-if-he-is-persecuted-in-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/06\/15\/putin-russia-ready-to-grant-asylum-to-comey-if-he-is-persecuted-in-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin: Russia Ready to Grant Asylum to Comey if He is Persecuted in US"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy Sputnik<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"b-article__lead\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Russia is ready to grant asylum to former FBI Director James Comey if he is persecuted in the United States, President Vladimir Putin<\/span> said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"b-article__text\">\n<p class=\"b-inject\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/328212722&amp;color=ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"marker-quote1\">&#8220;He said he had recorded his conversation with\u00a0President [Donald Trump] and handed over\u00a0this recording to\u00a0mass media with\u00a0the help of\u00a0a friend. This sounds strange. When a special service head records a conversation with\u00a0the commander-in-chief and then gives it to\u00a0the media through\u00a0his friend. What is then the difference between\u00a0the FBI director and [Edward] Snowden? Then he is not the head of\u00a0a special service, he is a human rights activist defending a certain stance. If he [Comey] is persecuted, we are ready to\u00a0grant him political asylum in\u00a0Russia, he should know about\u00a0it,&#8221; Putin said.<\/p>\n<p>On June 8, <a href=\"https:\/\/sputniknews.com\/us\/201706081054436818-comey-senate-testimony\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Comey appeared for\u00a0testimony<\/a> on\u00a0the Trump-Russia probe at\u00a0the US Senate Intelligence Committee. He explained why he recorded his private talks with\u00a0the US president, saying that he was afraid Trump might &#8220;lie&#8221; about\u00a0them. However, he said that Trump did not directly order him stop investigation into\u00a0former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.<\/p>\n<div class=\"b-inject m-inject-min\">\n<div class=\"b-inject__content\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sputniknews.com\/radio_loud_and_clear\/201706141054608129-jeff-sessions-testifies\/\">Jeff Sessions Testifies: What Did He Say About Comey, Trump, Russia?<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"b-inject__type m-audio\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Following the revelation, Trump&#8217;s lawyer Marc Kasowitz <a href=\"https:\/\/sputniknews.com\/us\/201706091054484178-trump-lawyer-complaint-leak\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">called for<\/a> finding out\u00a0whether by\u00a0leaking sensitive information the ex-FBI head violated the law.In May, <a href=\"http:\/\/sputniknews.com\/trend\/trump_fires_comey\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trump fired Comey<\/a> over\u00a0what he believed was poor handling of\u00a0the investigation into\u00a0the Hillary Clinton private server and email scandal. However, many believe that the decision is connected with\u00a0the probe into\u00a0alleged ties of\u00a0Trump&#8217;s campaign team to\u00a0Russia, as\u00a0Comey reportedly was seeking funding to\u00a0extend the bureau\u2019s inquiry.<\/p>\n<p>Russia has repeatedly denied claims of\u00a0meddling in\u00a0the US political process, calling such allegations absurd. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow had no official contacts with\u00a0Trump&#8217;s team during\u00a0the presidential campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"marker-quote1\">&#8220;I am not familiar with\u00a0the testimony given by\u00a0Comey, the former head of\u00a0the FBI, but\u00a0I know some things, of\u00a0course. What thoughts do I have about\u00a0this? The first thing that I noticed, the former FBI director said that he believed that Russia&#8217;s interference in\u00a0the election process [in the US] took place, he did not provide any evidence in\u00a0this case yet again. But, as\u00a0he said, the influence on\u00a0our [US] minds, and on\u00a0how we should act, took place,&#8221; Putin said.<\/p>\n<p>The president questioned if it was any different around\u00a0the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"marker-quote1\">&#8220;And the constant US propaganda, the constant supply of\u00a0NGOs oriented toward\u00a0the US, and money is allocated directly for\u00a0this, is this not an influence on\u00a0our minds and not an attempt to\u00a0influence how we should act during\u00a0the election campaign? Yes, it continues from\u00a0year to\u00a0year. Take the globe, spin it around, poke with\u00a0a finger in\u00a0any place, there would be the US interests and there would definitely be their interference. I know this from\u00a0conversations with\u00a0almost all the heads of\u00a0state. They just do not want to\u00a0quarrel with\u00a0the US side, no one directly talks of\u00a0this,&#8221; Putin added.<\/p>\n<p>The Russian president noted that according to\u00a0Comey there was no evidence that Russia meddled with\u00a0the vote count in\u00a0the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"marker-quote1\">&#8220;Thank God, this is something, this is good,&#8221; Putin said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy Sputnik Russia is ready to grant asylum to former FBI Director James Comey if he is persecuted in the United States, President Vladimir Putin said. &#8220;He said he had recorded his conversation with\u00a0President [Donald Trump] and handed over\u00a0this recording to\u00a0mass media with\u00a0the help of\u00a0a friend. This sounds strange. When a special service head records [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66970\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}