U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin told him the United States “can’t have an honest election” while it allows widespread mail-in voting, and that Trump “won [2020] by so much.” Trump recounted the private exchange after a nearly three-hour meeting with Putin in Fairbanks, Alaska, and repeated the claim during a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity. Labeling Putin a “smart guy,” Trump argued that mail voting makes elections “impossible” to secure and urged Congress to ban it nationwide. He faulted Republicans for not prioritizing election legislation strongly enough, saying, “The Republicans want it, but not strongly enough.” Putin allegedly asserted that no country uses mail-in ballots, a statement contradicted by the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, which lists nearly 30 nations—including Canada, Germany and South Korea—with established postal-voting systems. U.S. election officials and multiple court rulings have found no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 race, and Trump himself has voted by mail in past elections. Trump’s reliance on Putin’s assessment comes despite U.S. intelligence findings that Moscow sought to aid his campaigns in 2016 and 2020. Putin, re-elected last year with 87% of the vote amid allegations of ballot-rigging, has previously claimed U.S. contests suffer from fraud without providing evidence.