Kremlin: Obama's Trump criticism anti-Russian, won't foster better ties

[September 14, 2016]    MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Wednesday it viewed U.S. President Barack Obama's recent statements on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as anti-Russian and said they were unlikely to improve fragile relations between Russia and the United States.

President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign event in support of U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,U.S., September 13, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Obama on Tuesday strongly criticized Trump for praising Russian President Vladimir Putin and for appearing on a TV channel, RT, funded by the Russian government.

"Unfortunately, we see continued displays of often hard-core Russophobia," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on Obama's intervention, told a conference call with reporters. "We can only express regret in this regard.

"This rhetoric, which is being formulated in electoral campaign style ... is unlikely to help fledgling fragile attempts to build at least some sort of mutual trust."

(Reporting by Denis Pinchuk; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.