Donald Trump said on Saturday he believes Vladimir Putin’s denials of Russian involvement in the manipulation of the 2016 presidential election. Trump spoke after a brief meeting with Putin on the margins of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Vietnam. As he did so, he launched a tirade against special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between his campaign and the Kremlin. The investigation could cost “millions and millions of lives”, Trump claimed, by hindering agreement with Moscow over conflicts in Syria and Ukraine and a looming confrontation with North Korea.