Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual news conference in Moscow
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Russian President Vladimir Putin answered questions during his annual life-broadcasted news conference with Russian and foreign media at the World Trade Centre in Moscow, Russia, 19 December 2019. A total of 1,895 journalists were accredited for Putin’s annual news conference.
Putin called the U.S. impeachment process “far-fetched” Thursday, making a seemingly obvious prediction that Donald Trump will be acquitted in the Senate.
Putin said Thursday at his annual news conference in Moscow that the move is a continuation of the Democrats’ fight against Trump.
“The party that lost the (2016) election, the Democratic Party, is trying to achieve results by other means,” Putin said.
He likened Trump’s impeachment to the earlier U.S. probe into collusion with Russia, which Putin downplayed as being groundless.
Putin earlier opened the marathon news conference on another topic, saying that global climate change poses new challenges to Russia. He said that global warming could threaten Russian Arctic cities and towns built on permafrost.
The Russian leader added that climate changes could trigger fires, devastating floods and other negative consequences.
Putin emphasized that Russia has abided by the Paris agreement intended to slow down global warming. At the same time, he noted that factors behind global climate change have remained unknown and hard to predict.
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.
