Fox News host Chris Wallace confronted Russian President Vladimir Putin Monday night about many of his political enemies "end[ing] up dead or close to it."
Wallace sat down with Putin following his meeting and press conference with President Donald Trump to discuss various issues, ranging from his discussions with the U.S. president to many of his political adversaries being killed or severely attacked.
"You say nothing happened to you, but I need to ask you domestically, not internationally, domestically inside Russia, why is it that so many of the people that oppose Vladimir Putin end up dead or close to it?" Wallace asked. "Former Russian spy and double-agent Sergei Skripal, the victim of a nerve agent attack in England. Boris Nemtsov, a political opponent, gunned down near the Kremlin. Investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya, murdered in an apartment building. Why is it that so many people who were political enemies of Vladimir Putin are attacked?"
Putin, speaking through a translator, responded by deflecting Wallace's question and saying all world leaders have "plenty of political rivals," including Trump.
"But they don't end up dead," Wallace fired back. Putin, in turn, attempted to draw a parallel between attacks against his opponents and the deaths of U.S. leaders, including former President John F. Kennedy and civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.
"Haven't presidents been killed in the United States? ... Was Kennedy killed in Russia or the United States?" Putin said.
"All of us have our own set of domestic problems, but going back to what happened in Russia, yes we do have crime and we unfortunately the rest have some crimes and some extent Russia's statehood is maturing and there are some side effects. And we persecute people responsible for those crimes," Putin said. "But since you mentioned this Skripal case, we would like to get at least some sort of a document and evidence about it, but nobody gives it to us."
Wallace responded by saying, "Supposedly they picked up the bottle that was used to attack Skripal." He then tried to shift to another question, but Putin insisted he respond further to the Skripal case.
"Let us seal this issue first. What kind of package? What kind of bottle? What’s the chemical formula? Who got it? Or maybe there are other reasons–reasons of death," Putin said. "Maybe it’s the internal reasons within the United Kingdom, but nobody wants to look into the issue. No, we just see the ungrounded accusations. Why is it done this way? Why our relationship should be made worse by this pretense? We have to build them with the U.K. as well."