Kremlin Denies Interfering in U.S. Election Campaign

The Kremlin on Wednesday denied Moscow was interfering in the US election campaign after President Barack Obama refused to rule out that Russia could be trying to sway the vote in favour of Donald Trump.

"President Putin has repeatedly said that Russia has never interfered and does not interfere in internal affairs, especially in the electoral processes of other countries," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters as he denied Russia was involved in a hack of Democratic National Committee emails.

"Moscow has carefully avoided any actions, any words that could be interpreted as direct or indirect influence on the electoral process."

The Kremlin had already shrugged off accusations by the Hillary Clinton campaign that Russia was involved in the embarrassing leak of emails meant to help Republican presidential candidate Trump as "absurd".

"If you talk about some suspicions regarding our country, then you need at the very least to be precise and concrete," Peskov said Wednesday.

In an interview with NBC News set to air Wednesday, Obama said that "anything was possible" following suggestions that Russia could have been behind the hack.

Obama told NBC he could not speak about the precise motive for the hack or subsequent leak but was aware of Trump's positive comments about the Russian leadership.

"What we do know is that the Russians hack our systems. Not just government systems, but private systems," Obama said.

Trump has made no secret of his admiration for President Vladimir Putin, leading some to suggest the Kremlin strongman was working to help propel the real estate billionaire into the White House.

In December last year, Putin praised Trump as "a very striking man, unquestionably talented".

"It's not up to us to judge his virtues, that is up to US voters, but he is the absolute leader of the presidential race," Putin said.

Trump responded by hailing Putin as a "strong leader, a powerful leader".

Peskov said Wednesday the Kremlin regretted that politicians in Washington were playing the "Russian card," adding that it had become "the main card of their game."