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Russia's President Vladimir Putin gives the 15th annual end-of-year news conference at the World Trade Centre.
- Russia's Vladimir Putin defended President Donald Trump on Thursday after the US House of Representatives passed a historic impeachment vote.
- Trump, who has faced intense scrutiny over his relationship with Russia, was impeached for pressuring Ukraine to investigate political rivals.
- Putin said: "This is an example of partisan infighting. The party who lost the election, [the Democrats], is using other methods to achieve their goals."
- He continued: "They accused him of plotting with Russia, and when that turned out not to be true, they made up pressure on Ukraine."
- The response would not be out of place coming from the Trump campaign, which has argued that a refusal to accept the 2016 result is the real reason for impeachment.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin rushed to defend President Donald Trump after he became only the third US president in history to be impeached.
During a blockbuster annual press conference, Putin was asked about the vote that saw Trump impeached by the House of Representatives on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Putin dismissed the charges as "made up," according to The Moscow Times.
And in an echo of the president's own defense against impeachment Putin then further claimed that the proceedings are were part of a partisan bid to unseat Trump.
Thomson Reuters
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
Putin said:
I am not so sure his presidency is ending. This is an example of partisan infighting. The party who lost the election, [the Democrats], is using other methods to achieve their goals. They accused him of plotting with Russia, and when that turned out not to be true, they made up pressure on Ukraine. If you want to support Ukraine, give them money, but not at our expense.
The question was put to Putin by Dmitry Simes, head of the Washington-based think tank Center for the National Interest, according to CNN.
According to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference, the organisation advised Trump's campaign on Russia. Analysts say the Kremlin carefully vets who gets to speak to Putin at the conference.
Both Trump and his Republican allies have used the same argument as Putin: that Democrats launched the impeachment bid in an attempt to make up for their loss in 2016.
Trump in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday said, rejecting the impeachment process, framed it as a response to 2016.
He wrote: "your chosen candidate lost the election in 2016, in an Electoral College landslide (306-227), and you and your party have never recovered from this defeat."
Earlier this year former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who had a pivotal role in impeaching Bill Clinton in the 1990s, wrote on Twitter that Democrats "began their campaign to impeach President Trump on Nov. 9, 2016 - the morning after he was elected."
Since taking office, Trump has faced intense scrutiny over his relationship with Putin.
US intelligence agencies have found that Russia launched an extensive campaign to undermine the 2016 presidential election in a bid to help secure Trump's election.
Trump has in the past lavished praise on Putin, and cast doubt over the findings of the US intelligence agencies over Russia's role in the 2016 election.
His impeachment stems from a July 25 phonecall with Ukraine's president, in which he asked the country to investigate an unsubstantiated conspiracy that Ukraine interfered in the election and framed Russia in a bid to help the Democrats.
Putin on #Trump impeachment: US President unlikely to be voted out of office#PutinPresser
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- RT (@RT_com) December 19, 2019