The filmmaker has said hatred of the country is a product of propaganda

Oscar-winning American director Oliver Stone has said the claims that Russia meddled in the 2016 US presidential election were nothing but lies.

For years, Democrats have claimed that the Kremlin waged a covert campaign to sway the race in favor of then-candidate and current President Donald Trump.

The 2019 report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller alleged that the Russian government interfered in the election “in sweeping and systematic fashion,” mostly through hacking and messaging on social media.

The investigation, however, “did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,” according to the final report.

A Fox News reporter asked Stone last week whether he thinks Trump is right to “take on” the FBI and the CIA after “what happened to him with the Russia probe.” 

“I know. Look at Russiagate; we paid for it,” the filmmaker replied. “I applaud [what Trump is doing].”

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“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 said.

“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,” the director of ‘Platoon’ and ‘JFK’ said.

Mueller accused Trump of attempting to obstruct his probe, and a number of former Trump campaign staffers were indicted as a result of the investigation, but not the president himself.

Trump has maintained that Russiagate was part of a politically motivated “witch hunt” aimed at discrediting and undermining his presidency. He dismissed the accusations in the Mueller Report as “fabricated and totally untrue.” 

The Kremlin has denied that it meddles in US elections. In 2016, President Vladimir Putin described the claims of Russian interference as “a mythical, imaginary problem” and a product of “hysteria.”