Putin says knew 'from beginning' Mueller probe would find no collusion

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday he knew from the start that the massive investigation into links between US President Donald Trump's campaign and Moscow would come up empty.

"We have said from the beginning that (special counsel Robert Mueller's) commission would not find anything. Nobody knows better than us, Russia did not meddle in any elections," Putin said.

"It was clear ahead of time," he said at the International Arctic Forum. "I talked about this." The long-awaited report into election meddling concluded that no members of the campaign conspired with Russia to boost Trump in the 2016 presidential elections.

At the same time the investigation did find that Russia carried out a campaign of disinformation and hacked emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign team, and 25 Russians have been indicted.

Putin on Tuesday again called accusations of meddling "total nonsense for the (US) domestic audience".

A redacted version of the Mueller report could be released to the public by next week, US Attorney General Bill Barr said Tuesday.