Putin Criticizes Democrats for Impeaching Trump

MOSCOW—Russian President Vladimir Putin blasted U.S. Democrats for impeaching President Trump on what the Russian leader called “made up charges,” and said he expects the U.S. leader to survive the firestorm in Washington and remain in power.

Speaking at a wide-ranging end-of-year news conference, Mr. Putin described Wednesday’s events in Congress as “the continuation of political infighting” between Democrats and Republicans. “I don’t think Trump will be voted out of power on made up charges,” Mr. Putin said. “Democrats lost the last election, and now they want to win by other means.”

Nearly all Democrats in the House of Representatives supported abuse-of-power and obstruction of Congress charges against Mr. Trump for pressing Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading Democratic candidate for 2020’s presidential election. Republicans voted against sending Mr. Trump for trial in the Senate, while the president defended himself in a series of messages on Twitter where he railed against Democrat lawmakers for “trying to nullify the ballots of tens of millions of patriotic Americans,” he said.