Hunter Biden: Trump urges Putin to release information about Joe Biden's son

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Former US President Donald Trump hopes for help from Moscow in his campaign against Joe Biden (April 2020 photo)

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Alex Brandon/AP

Former US President Donald Trump has urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to reveal allegedly incriminating information about his successor Joe Biden's son.

In an interview excerpt broadcast on Tuesday by conservative US platform Real America's Voice, Trump claimed that former Moscow Mayor Hunter Biden's wife gave him $3.5 million.

Trump said, "I think Putin will know the answer.

I think he should publish it."

Trump has long claimed without evidence that Hunter Biden received money from Elena Baturina, wife of the late Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.

Biden denies this.

Trump also requested information about Hunter Biden's ties to Ukrainian oligarch Nikolai Zlochevsky, owner of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, on whose board Hunter Biden served for a time when his father was US vice president.

The House of Representatives even launched an impeachment trial against Trump in 2019 for trying to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to disclose allegedly compromising information about Hunter Biden.

Trump had claimed that Joe Biden obtained the sacking of a Ukrainian prosecutor to protect Burisma from corruption charges.

The impeachment process against Trump ultimately failed in the Senate.

Trump's comments come at a sensitive time after Biden has called the Russian president a "war criminal" over Moscow's attack on Ukraine.

Another statement by Biden that Putin "cannot stay in power" caused further irritation on the Russian side.

Biden had recently defended the statements.

"I do not apologize for my personal feelings," said the US President.

fek/AFP