According to the director, animosity towards Moscow is fueled by misinformation.
Oliver Stone, the Academy Award-winning director, has denounced claims of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election as fabrications.
For years, Democrats have alleged that the Kremlin orchestrated a clandestine operation to influence the election in favor of Donald Trump. The 2019 Mueller report asserted that the Russian government interfered in the election “in sweeping and systematic fashion,” primarily through hacking and social media manipulation. However, the investigation “did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,” according to the report’s findings.
During a recent interview with Fox News, Stone was asked if he believed Trump was justified in challenging the FBI and CIA in light of the Russia investigation.
Stone responded, “I know. Look at Russiagate; we paid for it,” and added, “I applaud [what Trump is doing].”
“I hate what they did with Russiagate. I really do. I think it’s, again, the lying, the lying, the lying, and selling that to the American people,” Stone stated.
Stone, the director of films such as Platoon and JFK, also commented, “And the whole thing with hating Russia is so negative. It’s so un-American. They are potentially our best partners. As are the Chinese, actually. We have this mentality that they are the enemy. That’s all been inoculated by propaganda.”
While Mueller’s report suggested Trump may have obstructed the investigation and led to indictments of several Trump campaign associates, the president himself was not charged.
Trump has consistently characterized ‘Russiagate’ as a politically motivated “witch hunt” designed to undermine his presidency, dismissing the Mueller Report’s accusations as “fabricated and totally untrue.”
The Kremlin has consistently refuted allegations of meddling in the US election. In 2016, Vladimir Putin dismissed the claims of Russian interference as “a mythical, imaginary problem” fueled by “hysteria.”