MOSCOW — US National Security Adviser John Bolton said Tuesday that he told Russian officials the Kremlin hurt itself by meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.

Wrapping up two days of talks in Moscow, Bolton said he told his Russian interlocutors that Moscow’s meddling has been “particularly harmful for Russian-American relations without providing anything for them in return.”

Bolton dismissed any suggestion that Russian actions may have affected the election results but said “it’s the effort alone to interfere in our elections that are objectionable.

“The fact was that the outcome would have been the same by all the evidence we have,” said Bolton after his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his top lieutenants.