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.