Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump says his election rival, Hillary Clinton, commands no respect from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

She, in turn, suggests he is a Kremlin stooge.

In their Wednesday night debate, Clinton was asked about revelations in emails leaked from her Democratic Party, casting her positions on immigration and borders into doubt.

Those electronic documents were stolen by hackers, who the US government says are closely linked to Putin's government, and published by the WikiLeaks website.

‘This has come from the highest levels of the Russian government, clearly, from Putin himself, in an effort, as 17 of our intelligence agencies have confirmed, to influence our election,’ Clinton said.

She called for Trump to condemn the alleged Russian cyber espionage.

He called the discussion a ‘great pivot’ for Clinton to avoid talking about border issues.

‘I don't know Putin,’ said the New York tycoon, who once falsely claimed to be acquainted with the Russian leader.

‘He said nice things about me. If we got along well, that would be good. If Russia and the United States got along well and went after ISIS, that would be good.’  But the Russian strongman ‘has no respect’ for Clinton, Trump claimed.

‘Well, that's because he'd rather have a puppet as president of the United States,’ she asserted.

‘No puppet. ... You're the puppet!’ Trump shot back.

Clinton went on the attack.

‘It's pretty clear you won't admit that the Russians have engaged in cyber attacks against the United States of America, that you encouraged espionage against our people, that you are willing to spout the Putin line, sign up for his wish list, break up NATO, do whatever he wants to do, and that you continue to get help from him, because he has a very clear favourite in this race,’ she said.

Despite US government assertions of high-level involvement from Moscow, Trump insisted that Clinton ‘has no idea whether it's Russia, China, or anybody else.’  Seeming to speak to viewers, instead of her opponent on the Las Vegas stage, Clinton said: ‘Well, he'd rather believe Vladimir Putin than the military and civilian intelligence professionals who are sworn to protect us.’