MOSCOW — The Kremlin has denied a report that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally directed how hacked data from U.S. Democrats was used during the U.S. presidential election.

NBC News on Wednesday quoted U.S. intelligence officials as saying that Putin “became personally involved in the covert Russian campaign.”

Asked about the report, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday dismissed it as “laughable nonsense.”

Russia, blamed by the CIA for helping President-elect Donald Trump in last month’s U.S. presidential election, has vehemently denied accusations that it orchestrated hackers to work against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.