Vladimir Putin says Russian prostitutes are ‘the best in the world’

Vladimir Putin says Russian prostitutes are “the best in the world” but doubts Donald Trump succumbed to temptation.

Vladimir Putin has bragged that Russian prostitutes were “without question the best in the world” but said he doubted that Donald Trump had succumbed to their temptations.

Mr Putin poured scorn on claims that the US president-elect took part in a hotel sex party with two Russian prostitutes in 2013 as secret agents collected “kompromat” material that could be used for blackmail.

“The masterminds of fakes, the nature of which are presently being spread against the US president-elect, [are] worse than prostitutes — they have no moral limits,” Mr Putin said in Moscow. Their “political struggle” demonstrated “a significant level of degradation of political elites in the West, including the US”, he added.

The allegations were revealed last week in a dossier compiled by Christopher Steele, a former MI6 officer. They were denied by Mr Trump, who said that he was a germaphobe. Mr Putin said that prostitutes were women of “low social responsibility” and he doubted that Mr Trump “took the bait”.

The dossier claimed that Mr Trump had asked prostitutes to urinate on a bed in his suite at the Ritz Carlton, believing it was once used by President Obama and his wife, Michelle. He was in the city for a Miss Universe pageant.

“When Trump came to Moscow . . . he wasn’t any kind of political figure, we didn’t even know about his political ambitions,” Mr Putin said. “He was just a businessman, one of the richest people in America. Does someone think the special services run around after every American billionaire? Of course not, that’s total nonsense.

“Secondly: [the idea that] Trump arrived and straight away ran to meet up with some Moscow prostitutes. This is an adult person and a person who has spent many years organising beauty contests. He spent time with the most beautiful women in the world. I find it hard to imagine that he ran to a hotel to meet with our girls ‘of low social responsibility’. They are without question the best in the world but I doubt Trump took the bait.”

Mr Putin accused the outgoing Obama administration of trying to undermine Mr Trump by spreading the fake allegations and said those who are doing it are “worse than prostitutes.”

Mr Trump has earlier rejected the sexual allegations as “fake news” and “phony stuff.”

Putin’s broadside at the White House reveals a culmination of tensions between Moscow and Washington, which have built up over the Ukrainian crisis, the Syrian war and the allegations of Russian meddling in the US election.

“People who order such fakes against the US president-elect, fabricate them and use them in political struggle are worse than prostitutes,” Mr Putin said. “They have no moral restrictions whatsoever, and it highlights a significant degree of degradation of political elites in the West, including in the United States.”

He was speaking in Moscow during a news conference following talks with the president of Moldova.

THE TIMES