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Putin Says Can't Justify Spoiling Saudi Ties Over Khashoggi Affair

Jamal Khashoggi / POMED / Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia did not have enough information about the unexplained disappearance of a Saudi journalist to justify spoiling ties with Riyadh.

Turkey says Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who was critical of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed by Saudi agents in Riyadh's diplomatic mission in Istanbul on Oct. 2 and his body cut up. Saudi Arabia denies the allegation.

Putin told a discussion forum in the Black Sea resort of Sochi that Moscow did not really know what had happened in the case, that it was a pity that the journalist had gone missing and that Russia would wait for details.

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