Putin sounds just like the president: Collusion talk ‘made up by opponents to delegitimize Trump’

Russian president Vladimir Putin sounded just like his American counterpart by denouncing reports about Trump-Russia collusion.

Putin said Thursday the allegations about campaign collusion have "been made up by (President Donald) Trump's opponents to delegitimize Trump's time in office."

"It really seems strange to me because it seems they don't understand that they undermine their own nation, they limit the powers of the president," Putin said.

The Russian president said during his annual year-end press conference -- which can run for hours -- that collusion claims undercut Trump's "serious accomplishments," pointing to the state of the U.S. economy.

"It's not up to me to assess Trump," Putin said. "That's up to the American people."

Former U.S. national security adviser Mike Flynn has pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents in January about his contacts a month before with former Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak to discuss sanctions imposed by the Obama administration in retaliation for election interference.

Putin echoed Trump by asking why those discussions, which took place before Inauguration Day, were improper.

"Is that banned? Why does it have to be turned into spy mania?" Putin said.

Trump has said he believes Putin's denials of Russian election interference, which U.S. intelligence services warned against in the months before the Nov. 8, 2016, election and has been under FBI investigation since last summer.

Special counsel Robert Mueller has been investigating the Trump campaign's ties to Russia since May, after the president fired FBI director James Comey, and has resulted in two guilty pleas and two indictments.

Trump-Kremlin connection stories were invented by US opposition - Putin https://t.co/gify2yh3Hypic.twitter.com/m6RkeDW4C3

— Ruptly (@Ruptly) December 14, 2017