An election video from Republican front runner Donald Trump has hit a sour note in Russia, with the Kremlin saying it "demonises" the country.
The video, which is posted on Mr Trump's Instagram feed, tries to cast doubt over the ability of his Democratic Party rival Hillary Clinton to deal with US opponents, including Russia.
It shows Russian leader Vladimir Putin throwing an opponent to the floor in a judo match and a clip of him laughing, which is shown after one of Mrs Clinton barking like a dog.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had seen the clip but he was not sure if Mr Putin had seen it, adding: "(But) our attitude is negative".
He said: "It's an open secret for us that demonising Russia and whatever is linked to Russia is unfortunately a mandatory hallmark of America's election campaign.
"We always sincerely regret this and wish the (US) electoral process was conducted without such references to our country."
Sky News Russia Correspondent John Sparks said the reaction seemed to "cut across the grain" of the "Trump-Putin story so far".
He added: "Both men have been complimenting each other over the past few month.
"Donald Trump has talked about his desire to have good relations with Russia, he has complimented Vladimir Putin as a strong leader and he sent out positive tweets about Putin as well.
"Vladimir Putin has complimented Donald Trump back: at an annual press conference just before Christmas, Putin described Trump as a very colourful and intelligent man, and that sort of mood music has been picked up by the Russian state media here.
"Clearly, for Trump and his team, being seen to be too close to Russia, to Vladimir Putin, they have twigged that's an electoral liability and they're trying to move back somewhat."
