Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Donald Trump's impeachment was based on "fabricated" charges and that the US Senate will reject the motion.
Speaking at his annual news conference in Moscow, the Russian leader dismissed assertions that his US counterpart could be removed from office - while claiming the US president's democratic rivals had pursued impeachment for purely political reasons.
"The party that lost the election is continuing the fight by other means," Mr Putin said.
He went on to liken Trump's impeachment to the earlier US probe into collusion with Russia, which the Mr Putin downplayed as being groundless.
He added that the impeachment motion "is yet to pass the Senate where the Republicans have a majority.
"It's unlikely they will want to remove from power a representative of their party based on what are, in my opinion, completely far-fetched reasons."
The Russian president's marathon press conferences have become a spectacle in their own right over the years, often stretching beyond the four hour mark as Mr Putin takes questions from hundreds of media operators from around the world.
The events are utilised by Mr Putin's regime to paint the leader as open to inquiry despite his administration's year-round lack of accountability and Draconian stifling of the free press.
And since Mr Trump took office, reporters at the events have routinely asked about Mr Putin's views on the US leader and his policies.
In 2018 the 67-year-old used the platform to say he agreed with Mr Trump's decision to withdraw troops from Syria - a move he fully implemented almost a year later, allowing Russia to move soldiers into the region.
The year before he fielded questions on allegations of collusion between Russia and the US, dismissing them as claims "invented by people who are opposed to Trump in order to make his work illegitimate"
