Kremlin notes U.S. case against ex-Trump aides does not accuse Russia

MOSCOW, Oct 31 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Tuesday it had noted that U.S. charges against President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort and another aide, Rick Gates, did not point the finger at Russia over alleged meddling in U.S. politics.

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Federal investigators probing alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, something Moscow denies, charged Manafort and Gates with money laundering on Monday.

Despite the charges being brought as part of a five-month-old investigation into alleged Russian efforts to tilt the election in Trump's favour and into potential collusion by Trump aides, the charges, some going back over a decade, centred on Manafort's work for Ukraine's former government, not Russia's.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow had noted the absence of allegations against Russia in the indictment, saying Moscow had always said it had never meddled in the U.S. election.

"...Russia does not feature in the charges that were levelled in any way. Other countries and other people feature (in the charges)," Peskov told a conference call with reporters.

"Moscow never felt itself guilty so as to feel exonerated now," he said, when asked whether the Kremlin interpreted the indictment as proof that its repeated denials about meddling in the U.S. presidential election had been confirmed.

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