Vladimir Putin has conceded that patriotically-minded Russian hackers might target foreign electoral campaigns. It was the Russian president’s latest nonchalant response to accusations made by US and Europe that Moscow had meddled in their elections.

“Hackers are free people like artists,” Mr Putin said at a meeting with heads of foreign news agencies on Thursday. “If artists get up in the morning feeling good, all they do all day is paint. The same goes for hackers. They got up today and read that something is going on internationally. If they are feeling patriotic, they will start contributing, as they believe, to the justified fight against those speaking ill of Russia.”

Mr Putin was responding to a question by the director-general of German news agency DPA whether he had any “advice” for Germany and German government officials fearing that hackers, possibly from Russia, could interfere with the parliamentary election in September.