"The Democrats didn't just lose the presidential election, but the House and the Senate as well. Did I do that as well?" he added.
Putin made the remarks in front of a TV studio audience, where he took live questions in his traditional once-yearly off-the-cuff Q&A format. It was live-streamed on YouTube:
It was also live-tweeted by The Guardian's Moscow correspondent, Shaun Walker. Many of the initial questions were about Trump and the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails, which hurt Hilary Clinton's campaign when they were released before the vote:
"Putin was pretty vicious on the Democrats, which is not surprising given the way bilateral relations have been over the past years. Now that Obama is leaving office, Putin can finally say everything he thinks. He portrayed all the accusations of Russian interference as sour grapes from bad losers," Walker wrote for The Guardian.
In reference to the "nobody believed in him, except us" quote, Walker said: "In classic Putin fashion, after denying everything, he gave a little wink-nudge nugget just to muddy the waters."
Putin again says accusations he interfered in US elex "attempts by the Democrats & current admin to put their failures on external factors."
- Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) December 23, 2016Trump "understood the mood of the people and kept going until the end, when nobody believed in him, except us," says Putin to more applause.
- Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) December 23, 2016Putin says he doesn't reveal content of private convos. Repeats Trump's words that the hackers couldve been in any country, or random person
- Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) December 23, 2016Putin says it's not important who did the hacking, it's important that the info it revealed was true, Democrats should apologise not accuse.
- Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) December 23, 2016