The Kremlin on Sunday said it did not believe the current US administration was responsible for Saturday's assassination attempt on US presidential candidate Donald Trump, but that it had created an atmosphere that provoked the attack.
Trump was shot in the ear during a Saturday rally in Pennsylvania, in an attack now being investigated as an assassination attempt that left the Republican presidential candidate's face streaked with blood.
"We do not believe that the attempt to eliminate and assassinate Trump was organised by the current authorities," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"But the atmosphere around candidate Trump...provoked what America is confronting today.