How can I be a gangster if I worked for the KGB?

Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed a US presidential candidate's accusation that he's a "gangster" in a CBS "60 Minutes" interview published Sunday.

"How can I be a gangster if I worked for the KGB? Come on. That does not correspond to reality," Putin told journalist Charlie Rose, according to CBS' translation.

Putin was responding to a claim made by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), a 2016 presidential candidate.

Politico reported that Rubio accused Putin of being a gangster at a Charleston, South Carolina, campaign stop last month.

"Russia is governed today by a gangster," Rubio was quoted saying. "He's basically an organized crime figure who controls the government and a large territory. There's no other way to describe Vladimir Putin."

Putin, who has repeatedly tangled with the US, was a former officer in the KGB security agency before entering elected politics in Russia.

Putin is in New York City on Monday: He's scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly for the first time in a decade and have a rare face-to-face meeting with President Barack Obama.