U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has said that he raised the issue of the hacking of Democratic Party emails in a July 26 meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
"I raised the question and we will continue to work to see precisely what those facts are," Kerry told reporters.
Lavrov dismissed has dismissed the allegations from U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign that Russia was behind an embarrassing leak of Democratic e-mails.
Lavrov, at the start of talks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on the sideline of an Asian foreign ministers meeting in Laos on July 26, was asked whether Russian hackers had leaked the Democratic National Committee e-mails showing that top party leaders had favored Clinton over her campaign rival Bernie Sanders despite their purported neutrality in the White House race.
Clinton aides have charged that Russia was behind the leak, which outraged Sanders supporters on the eve of the Democratic convention, because the Kremlin favors her Republican rival Donald Trump, who has talked glowingly of improving relations with Russia as president.
Lavrov suggested a proper response to that allegation would involve using vulgar language. He replied in English: "Well, I don't want to use four-letter words."
Trump also called the charge "one of the weirdest conspiracy theories"he's heard on July 25.