Putin says Trump was impeached for 'far-fetched' reasons

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump was impeached for “far-fetched” reasons, calling the move by Democrats a continuation of their fight against the Republican leader.

“It's simply a continuation of internal political struggle,” Putin said at his end-of-year news conference in Moscow. “The party that lost the (2016) election, the Democratic Party, is trying to achieve results by other means."

Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures during his annual news conference in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2019. [Photo: AP/Pavel Golovkin]

He likened Trump's impeachment to the earlier U.S. probe into collusion with Russia. Former special counsel of United States Robert Mueller concluded earlier this year that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election in a “sweeping and systematic fashion.”

“Now they invented some sort of pressure on Ukraine,” Putin said, referring to the investigation of Trump's trying to enlist the president of that country to announce investigations of his political rival as he withheld U.S. aid to Kyiv.

Trump on Wednesday became only the third American president to be impeached. The historic vote in the House of Representatives split along party lines over a charge of abusing his power. The House also approved a second article that he obstructed Congress in its investigation.

Noting the Republicans have a majority in the Senate, where a trial of Trump will be conducted, Putin said “they will be unlikely to remove a representative of their own party from office on what seems to me absolutely far-fetched reasons.”

Turning to the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty with the U.S. that expires in 2021, Putin said that Russia is ready to extend it “even tomorrow,” warning that the demise of the last U.S.-Russian arms control deal will remove the final barrier stemming an arms race.

Putin spoke on a variety of issues during the news conference that lasted for more than four hours and was dominated by local issues, such as Russia's ailing health care system and federal subsidies for the regions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during his annual news conference in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2019. [Photo: AP/Pavel Golovkin]

He opened the news conference by warning about new challenges posed by global climate change, saying that global warming could threaten Russian Arctic cities and towns built on permafrost and trigger more fires and devastating floods.

Putin emphasized that Russia has abided by the Paris agreement intended to slow down global warming.

He also hailed the economic achievements of his rule, pointing that Russia has become the world's largest grain exporter, surpassing the U.S. and Canada — a dramatic change compared to the Soviet Union that heavily depended on grain imports.

Putin voiced hope for further moves to settle the conflict in eastern Ukraine following his talks in Paris on Dec. 9 with the leaders of Ukraine, France and Germany.

He said that the 2015 peace agreement signed in Minsk and brokered by France and Germany must be observed, rejecting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's push for revising it.

“If we start revising the Minsk agreement, it will lead to deadlock,” Putin said.

(Story includes material sourced from AP.)