REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin Russian President Vladimir Putin pushed back on Tuesday against unverified claims that Russia worked with Donald Trump during the US presidential election to undermine Hillary Clinton. 
 
 "We are witnessing an ongoing acute political struggle in the US, whose task is to undermine the legitimacy of the president-elect," Putin said, according to the Russian news agency Interfax. 
 
 He added that those behind the claims, included in a dossier made public last week, were "worse than prostitutes." 
 
 "I have an impression they practiced in Kiev and are ready to organize a Maidan in Washington, just to not let Trump take office," Putin said, referring to the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine that led to the ouster of the country's pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, in February 2014. 
 
 "The media frenzy surrounding Trump speaks of the degradation of US political elites," Putin said, adding that he was "not acquainted with Trump" and therefore had "no reasons either to defend or attack him." 
 
 The dossier was part of an opposition-research project conducted by a former British spy, Christopher Steele, at the behest of anti-Trump Republicans and, later, Democrats. Steele was the former head of the Russia desk in Moscow for Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6. The memos he wrote made their way to US intelligence officials sometime last year. 
 
 A summary of his findings, collected from the network of Russian intelligence sources he had cultivated, was presented to Trump, President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and the country's top lawmakers on intelligence matters earlier this month as part of a classified briefing about Russia's intervention in the US presidential election. 
 
 The dossier suggested, among other things, that Russian officials fed hacked Democratic documents to WikiLeaks in exchange for Trump sidelining Ukraine as a campaign issue; that Trump hired sex workers to perform lewd acts in a Moscow Ritz-Carlton presidential suite where President Barack Obama once stayed; and that what the dossier described as "Trump's unorthodox behavior in Russia over the years" provided Russians with information they could use to blackmail him. 
 
 Putin mocked the claims contained in the dossier, which he described as "an obvious fake" and "nonsense." 
 
 Russian intelligence services "don't chase every American billionaire," Putin said. He added that Trump "has been with the most beautiful women in the world, so why would he need prostitutes in Moscow?" 
 
 "Trump organized beauty contests," Putin continued. "I find it hard to believe that he rushed to some hotel to meet girls of loose morals, although ours are undoubtedly the best in the world." 
 
 Putin also slammed the new sanctions imposed on Russia by the Obama administration in late December, claiming that attempts were being made to tie Trump's "hands and feet" while he was performing his election campaign promises to try to improve relations with Russia. 
 
 "Some people leave without saying goodbye, and some say goodbye without leaving," Putin said. "The Obama administration belongs to the second category." 
 
 Throughout the campaign, Trump broke from traditional GOP orthodoxy and established himself as the most sympathetic Republican candidate toward Russia, stressing a need to work with the country on various geopolitical issues. 
 
 Trump has not commented on the dossier's specific claims, but has called the dossier itself "fake news" and "a complete fraud." 
 
 Watch Putin's remarks here: ||||| President-elect Donald Trump shakes hands with Martin Luther King III, son of Martin Luther King Jr. at Trump Tower in New York, Monday, Jan. 16, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) (Associated Press) 
 
 President-elect Donald Trump shakes hands with Martin Luther King III, son of Martin Luther King Jr. at Trump Tower in New York, Monday, Jan. 16, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) (Associated Press) 
 
 President-elect Donald Trump shakes hands with Martin Luther King III, son of Martin Luther King Jr. at Trump Tower in New York, Monday, Jan. 16, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) (Associated Press) President-elect Donald Trump shakes hands with Martin Luther King III, son of Martin Luther King Jr. at Trump Tower in New York, Monday, Jan. 16, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) (Associated Press) 
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President-elect Donald Trump (all times EST): 
 
 8:39 a.m. 
 
 Russian President Vladimir Putin is accusing the Obama administration of trying to undermine President-elect Donald Trump by spreading fake allegations. 
 
 Putin, speaking at a news conference in Moscow Tuesday, described a dossier on Trump as part of efforts by the Obama administration to "undermine the legitimacy of the president-elect" despite his "convincing" victory. 
 
 Putin dismissed as "fake" the dossier's unverified allegations about Trump's sexual activities at a Moscow hotel. He added that people who ordered it are "worse than prostitutes." 
 
 Trump has rejected the allegations as "fake news" and "phony stuff." 
 
 ___ 
 
 8:10 a.m. 
 
 Donald Trump is shrugging off polls that show him with low approval ratings. 
 
 The president-elect tweeted early Tuesday, "The same people who did the phony election polls, and were so wrong, are now doing approval rating polls. They are rigged just like before." 
 
 ___ 
 
 3:49 a.m. 
 
 A son of Martin Luther King Jr. says Donald Trump is talking unity. 
 
 Martin Luther King III said the president-elect spoke in a private meeting Sunday of representing all Americans. King III said he believes "that's his intent." 
 
 Trump met with King's son on the holiday marking the life of the assassinated civil rights icon, just days after the president-elect had gone on Twitter to strike back fiercely at Lewis for questioning the legitimacy of the billionaire businessman's election as president. Lewis and the elder King were among the Big Six civil rights leaders of the 1960s. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 President-elect Donald Trump was not told about unverified reports that Russia has compromising information on him during last week's intelligence briefing, according to a senior intelligence official with knowledge of preparations for the briefing. 
 
 A summary of the unverified reports was prepared as background material for the briefing, but not discussed during the meeting, the official said. During Trump's press conference Wednesday morning, the president-elect said he was made aware of the information "outside that meeting." 
 
 A 35-page memorandum published by BuzzFeed on Tuesday includes claims that the Russian government has been cultivating, supporting and assisting Trump for five years — even obtaining compromising information in an effort to blackmail him. (BuzzFeed is partially funded by the parent company of NBC News.) The document, which was not prepared by the U.S. government, contains obvious errors. It was originally generated as part of opposition research by anti-Trump Republicans and then shopped by Democrats. 
 
 Related: Seth Meyers Confronts Conway Over Trump Allegations 
 
 Two U.S. officials told NBC News that materials prepared for Trump in advance of last week's intelligence briefing included damaging allegations from the memorandum — unverified by American intelligence agencies — about his dealings with the Russians. 
 
 Officials prepared a two-page summary of the memo for Trump's briefing Friday at Trump Tower in New York. The summary was an "annex," or addendum, included in the "supporting documents" that accompanied the classified briefing report. 
 
 While multiple officials say the summary was included in the material prepared for the briefers, the senior official told NBC News that the briefing was oral and no actual documents were left with the Trump team in New York. During the briefing, the president-elect was not briefed on the contents of the summary. 
 
 “Intel and law enforcement officials agree that none of the investigations have found any conclusive or direct link between Trump and the Russian government period,” the senior official said. 
 
 According to the senior official, the two-page summary about the unsubstantiated material made available to the briefers was to provide context, should they need it, to draw the distinction for Trump between analyzed intelligence and unvetted “disinformation.” 
 
 The briefers also had available to them unvetted “disinformation” about the Clinton Foundation, although that was not orally shared with Trump. 
 
 The Russian government on Wednesday denied reports that it has compromising information about Trump, dismissing the claims as a "total hoax." 
 
 Amid increased interest in the dossier Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected all of the allegations out of hand. Trump later blamed intelligence agencies for allowing the dossier to leak, tweeting: "Are we living in Nazi Germany?" 
 
 "The Kremlin does not have compromising information about Trump," Peskov said, according to Russian state-run news agency TASS. "It's a total hoax, absolute fabrication and utter nonsense. The Kremlin does not collect compromising information." 
 
 Peskov also called the reports "pulp fiction." 
 
 Trump did not respond to the reports directly but sent a tweet appearing to refer to it on Tuesday night. 
 
 Early Wednesday, he sent several others that followed Peskov's comments. 
 
 Trump has repeatedly cast doubt over findings by American intelligence officials that Russia interfered in the U.S. election with the aim of helping him win. 
 
 NBC News reported last week that the gulf between Trump and U.S. intelligence agencies had grown so wide that the two camps couldn't even agree on the scheduled date of a briefing Trump had been due to receive. 
 
 Related: Putin's Sassy Trolling Sent Message to Trump, Experts Say 
 
 Peskov mentioned Trump's initial tweet, and went on to say that some people were “boosting the hysteria and go to any lengths to maintain this state of 'witch hunting.'” 
 
 Michael McFaul, who was ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, told NBC News he was sure Russian officials were "thrilled" to see Americans bickering about the leaked memo. "It doesn't make us look like we are a healthy democracy." 
 
 McFaul also said that Trump had contributed to an atmosphere in which "fake news" could flourish because of his past promotion of the unfounded "birther" conspiracy theory about President Barack Obama's birthplace. 
 
 In an interview with NBC News before his farewell address Tuesday night in Chicago, Obama said he had not seen the news accounts of Trump's Russian ties but noted that "as a matter of principle and national security, I don't comment on classified information." 
 
 Last month, Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats as punishment for Russia's alleged cyberattacks in the run-up to the Nov. 8 election. 
 
 The CIA has concluded that the interference was intended to help Trump win, and intelligence officials told NBC News that they believe "with a high level of confidence" that Russian President Vladimir Putin was personally involved in the covert campaign. 
 
 Trump has been skeptical about the alleged Russian hacks, even as he repeatedly praised Putin.
– Donald Trump isn't the only person making recent claims of phony news stories. Vladimir Putin says an explosive dossier on Trump published by BuzzFeed last week, which included allegations Russia had compromising information on the president-elect, is an "obvious fake" and "nonsense," Russia's Interfax and TASS news agencies report, via Business Insider and the AP. Not only that, but any individuals behind the claims in the dossier are "worse than prostitutes," Putin said at a Tuesday press conference in Moscow. Speaking of prostitutes, Trump "has been with the most beautiful women in the world, so why would he need prostitutes in Moscow? Trump organized beauty contests. I find it hard to believe that he rushed to some hotel to meet girls of loose morals, although ours are undoubtedly the best in the world." He further said that Russian spies "don't chase every American billionaire." Putin called Trump's win in November a "convincing victory" and added that the Obama administration is behind the "ongoing acute political struggle … whose task is to undermine the legitimacy of the president-elect." He also emphasized that he doesn't know Trump personally and so wouldn't have a motive to make moves for or against him.