Putin Believes Articles Of Impeachment Against Trump Are ‘Absolutely Made Up’

Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed the impeachment charges against President Donald Trump as “absolutely made up” and predicted that Trump would not be removed.

At his end-of-the-year news conference on Thursday in Moscow, Putin described the impeachment as a partisan effort to oust Trump.

“The Democratic party, which lost the (2016) election, is achieving results through other means, by accusing Trump at first of conspiracy with Russia, then it turns out, there was no conspiracy at all,” Putin said, referring to Special Counsel Robert Mueller‘s investigation into potential Russian collusion.

He continued, “It then turned out that there was no collusion and it could not form the basis for an impeachment, and now there is this made-up pressure on Ukraine.”

The “made-up pressure” he is referring to lies at the center of the first article of impeachment against Trump which alleges he abused the power of the presidency by attempting to push the Ukrainian government to open a probe that would benefit him politically.

That charge is one of two articles brought forth by House Democrats who on Wednesday decided to impeach the president for the third time in U.S. history. The second charge is obstruction of Congress, as he blocked witnesses from testifying during the House’s investigation.

Those two articles will soon be brought to the Senate for an impeachment trial, after which senators will vote to convict or not. The GOP holds the majority of seats in the Senate, and given that the House vote fell along party lines, many do not expect the Senate to convict.

Putin echoed these beliefs saying, “I doubt they will want to remove their own party’s representative from power based on what I think are absolutely made-up reasons.”