US President-elect Donald Trump said on Saturday that only "stupid" people or "fools" would be against creating closer ties with Russia.

Despite his classified briefing on an intelligence report that shows proof of Russia interfering with the election on his behalf, Trump remained unswayed.

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"Having a good relationship with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing," Trump said in a series of tweets, adding that the two countries have enough problems without one another.

According to Trump, Russia will have more respect for the United States with him in power than they currently do with Barack Obama in the White House. Putin allegedly had a "clear preference" for Trump in his race against Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton.

However, Trump has repeatedly voiced his skepticism on the insistence by American intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 Presidential election. Trump argued that his approach to ties with Russia might allow the two adversarial nuclear powers to close ranks and work together to "solve some of the many great and pressing problems and issues of the world."

US intelligence agencies have also made a troublesome prediction: Russia is not yet done with intruding in American politics and policymaking. They say that immediately after the Nov. 8 election, Russia initiated a "spear-phishing" campaign in an effort to get people to reveal their email passwords. The campaign targeted US employees and think tanks that specialize in defense, national security, and foreign policy.

The unclassified intelligence report revealed that Russia provided emails to wikileaks. The website's founder Julian Assange has, however, denied allegations that they got the emails released from Moscow.

The intelligence report also accused Russia of using state-paid "trolls" to make nasty comments on social media sites. The public report did not include classified details that intelligence officials shared with Obama.

In an interview with journalists on Friday, Trump said that he had learned a lot from his discussions with intelligence officials. He, however, declined to say whether he accepted their belief that Russia had interfered with the election on his behalf.

TagsRussia, donald trump, Vladimir Putin