MOSCOW—Russian President Vladimir Putin played the statesman in his annual press conference Thursday, offering praise for President Donald Trump while offering few specific solutions to the country’s domestic problems. 
 
 Mr. Putin’s year-end press conferences have become a political ritual that dominates the airwaves in Russia. This year’s was no exception: The press conference, which lasted nearly four hours, showcased the 65-year-old leader in command of the minutiae of governance. 
 
 ... ||||| The subtext was that anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny has been barred from running. 
 
 “It's not my job to raise competitors,” Mr Putin said, noting that Russia had seen huge growth in GDP and incomes during his 18 years in power. He said the opposition “shouldn't make noise in the streets,” hinting at the street protests Mr Navalny called in dozens of cities across Russia this spring. 
 
 “That's the main problem of those who want to be a competitive opposition … they need to present real issues that people will believe in,” he said. 
 
 Mr Navalny was among those live-tweeting the press conference, lampooning softball questions and Mr Putin's rose-tinted answers. 
 
 After Mr Putin argued that the opposition should offer real alternatives rather than street protests, Mr Navalny tweeted the electoral platform he published on Wednesday. 
 
 “This is what the non-parliamentary opposition is offering, Vladimir Vladimirovich,” he wrote. “You're just trying hard not to notice.” 
 
 Mr Putin also said he will run as an independent, a logical move given that his personal popularity is higher than that of the ruling United Russia party. 
 
 The party is headed by PM Dmitry Medvedev, who served as president from 2008-12 before giving up the seat to Mr Putin in a maneuver to avoid the constitutional two-term limit. 
 
 Mr Putin then batted away a question about whether over-reaching security officials were the real traitors to the country. 
 
 “You love to provoke with you traitors and fifth columnists,” he said before taking a more staid question about the central bank. 
 
 The first hour of the press conference were focused on the economy, which is expected to return to moderate growth after flagging under low oil prices and Western sanctions. 
 
 Putin will 'defend the honour' of its athletes in civil courts 
 
 After an hour-and-a-half of questions about the economy and the election, Mr Putin's press secretary shifted the conversation to sport. Last week, the International Olympic Committee banned Russia from the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics for its systematic doping, saying its athletes would have to compete under a neutral flag. 
 
 Mr Putin argued that Russia was the victim of double standards and said the government would bring lawsuits in civil courts to “defend the honour” of its athletes who had been banned for doping violations. ||||| Russian President Vladimir Putin took a page out of the playbook of President Donald Trump on Thursday by referring to allegations of contact between U.S. and Russian officials during the 2016 election as "all invented." 
 
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 Putin spoke to reporters at a marathon press conference on Thursday -- an annual tradition for the Russian leader. 
 
 ABC News' Terry Moran asked Putin about the allegations of contact between Trump and the Kremlin during last year's election, a charge currently being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller. 
 
 Putin echoed Trump's favorite phrase of "fake news" in dismissing the allegations. 
 
 "All of this has been invented, made up by people who are in opposition to President Trump with a view to shedding a negative light on what President Trump is doing " Putin said, translated from Russian, and going on to call it "nonsense." 
 
 He accused those suggesting collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign as "not respecting the voters who voted for him." 
 
 Trump has used similar language to deny any Russian meddling in the election. 
 
 Putin praised the work of Trump in the first year of his presidency, citing the record-high stock market as evidence. 
 
 "Objectively, we see some serious achievements accomplished over the short span he is president," Putin said. "Look at the markets, how they’ve grown. This attests to the trust investors show in him on the American economy." 
 
 Putin said there "were also things that [Trump] has not yet managed to do that he would like to." 
 
 Mueller's probe into the Trump campaign continues, with him interviewing White House communications director, and former campaign aide, Hope Hicks earlier this week. Donald Trump Jr. also appeared on Capitol Hill Wednesday for a nine-hour interview with the Senate Intelligence Committee about Russian interference in the 2016 election. 
 
 Two Trump associates -- campaign chairman Paul Manafort and aide Richard Gates -- have been indicted on multiple charges resulting from Mueller's investigation. They have pleaded not guilty. Former foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn have both pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI while in the course of the investigation. ||||| Russian President Vladimir Putin smiles during his annual news conference in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 14, 2017. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) (Associated Press) 
 
 Russian President Vladimir Putin smiles during his annual news conference in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 14, 2017. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) (Associated Press) 
 
 MOSCOW (AP) — Allegations of collusion between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia have been "invented" by his political foes to undermine his legitimacy, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday, adding that the reports have undermined the U.S. political system. 
 
 Speaking at his annual marathon news conference, Putin reaffirmed his firm denial of meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. 
 
 "All of it was invented by people who oppose President Trump to undermine his legitimacy," he said. "I'm puzzled by that. People who do it are inflicting damage to the domestic political situation, incapacitating the president and showing a lack of respect for voters who cast their ballots for him." 
 
 He argued that Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak, whose contacts with Trump's entourage are part of the FBI and Congressional probes into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, was simply performing his routine duties like any other ambassador. 
 
 Putin also insisted Russia's state-funded RT TV and Sputnik news agency had a very minor presence in the U.S. media market, adding that the U.S. demand for them to register as foreign agents represented an attack on media freedom. Russia has responded in return, requesting the U.S. government-funded Voice of America and the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to register as foreign agents. 
 
 Putin noted Trump's achievements, saying that global markets have demonstrated investors' confidence in Trump's economic course. 
 
 The Russian leader said he and Trump had spoken on a first-name basis during their encounters on the sidelines of two international summits this year and voiced hope that Trump eventually would be able to fulfill his campaign promises to improve ties with Russia. 
 
 Putin emphasized that the two countries need to cooperate on tackling global challenges. He said Russia, in particular, is ready for "constructive" cooperation on tackling the North Korean standoff. 
 
 Putin has warned the U.S. not to use force against North Korea, adding that the consequences will be "catastrophic." He emphasized that Russia opposes Pyongyang's nuclear bid, but added the U.S. had "provoked" Pyongyang into developing its nuclear and missile programs by spiking a 2005 deal under which North Korea agreed to halt them. 
 
 Putin said Moscow was encouraged to hear U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's statement about readiness for talks with Pyongyang, hailing it as a "realistic" approach. 
 
 The Russian leader also voiced concern about the U.S. considering a pullout from key nuclear arms control pacts, adding that Moscow intends to stick to them. 
 
 He noted that Russia is particularly worried about what he described as U.S. violations of the INF Treaty, a Cold-War era pact banning intermediate range missiles. The U.S. has accused Russia of pact violations — charges that Russia has denied. Putin said the U.S. accusations are part of a "propaganda" campaign to pave the way for the U.S. withdrawal. 
 
 He emphasized that Russia will "ensure its security without entering an arms race." Russia's military spending next year will amount to 2.8 trillion rubles (about $46 billion) compared to the Pentagon's budget of about $700 billion, he noted. 
 
 Putin, who declared his re-election bid last week, said he would run as a self-nominated candidate, keeping a distance from the main Kremlin-controlled party, United Russia, whose many members have been dogged by corruption accusations. 
 
 He said he would welcome political competition but insisted that the opposition should offer a positive program. 
 
 Answering a question from 36-year-old celebrity TV host Ksenia Sobchak, who is challenging him in the March 18 presidential election, Putin said Thursday that he doesn't fear political competition but emphasized that the government would protect the country from attempts by radicals to destabilize Russia. 
 
 Answering Sobchak's question about opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who declared his intention to run for president but is being kept from entering the campaign by an embezzlement conviction that he calls politically motivated. Without mentioning his name, Putin likened Navalny to former Georgian president turned Ukrainian opposition leader, Mikhail Saakashvili, who has challenged the Ukrainian government with a series of anti-corruption protests. 
 
 Putin said his government wouldn't let "people like Saakashvili" plunge Russia into instability like that now in Ukraine. 
 
 Asked about accusations of state-supported doping that led to Russia being banned from the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, Putin alleged that there is a political element behind the claims, which Russia has denied. 
 
 Putin says Russian doping expert Grigory Rodchenkov — who is under witness protection after fleeing to the United States last year — is "under the control" of the FBI and "American special services." 
 
 He suggested U.S. agencies may be giving Rodchenkov unspecified "substances so that he says what's required." 
 
 Putin said the fact that Rodchenkov was appointed to run Moscow's anti-doping laboratory "was a mistake on the part of those who did it, and I know who did it," but didn't name names or say they should be punished. 
 
 Rodchenkov's testimony played a key role in International Olympic Committee investigations that led last week to Russian athletes being required to compete under a neutral flag at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Nataliya Vasilyeva and James Ellingworth in Moscow contributed to this report.
– He may not have said the term "fake news," or the Russian equivalent of it, but Vladimir Putin made it clear in his annual year-end press conference that he's labeling assertions of Russian meddling in the US election "nonsense," per ABC News. Putin railed against the probe by special counsel Robert Mueller and government panels into Russian interference, saying the investigation was "invented by people who are in opposition to [President] Trump to characterize his work as illegitimate," the Wall Street Journal reports. He also said Washington, DC, is now caught up in "spy mania" and that those pushing for answers are "not respecting the voters who voted for [Trump]." As for the president himself, Putin praised him for how he's doing so far, noting his "significant achievements," per the Times of Israel, adding that stock market performance "speaks of investor confidence in the US economy, which means that they trust what President Trump is doing." He also says he and Trump are now on a first-name basis after they met on the sidelines of two international summits in 2017. Other Putin pontifications from the presser, per the AP and the Telegraph: On Russian meddling, Part II: Putin insisted the Russian ambassador at the center of much of the controversy, Sergey Kislyak, never did anything beyond the reach of his official duties. Putin also pooh-poohed reaction to the presence of RT TV and the Sputnik news agency on the US media landscape, saying they barely made a blip and shouldn't have to register as foreign agents. On nuclear weapons: Generally, Putin says he's concerned about the US possibly yanking itself out of key nuclear arms control pacts, including the INF Treaty. More specifically, Putin is worried the US recently "provoked" North Korea on its nuclear weapons program, and that if the US decides to use force against the North, the results could be "catastrophic." Instead, Putin would prefer "constructive" talks with the US on the matter. On competition against him in next year's election: He says he's all for that "may the best man or woman win" mentality, but he adds he only welcomes rivals who offer a positive campaign, saying Russia will fend off "radicals" looking to throw the country into chaos. "It's not my job to raise competitors," he said. On Russia being banned from 2018 Olympics in South Korea: Putin continues to deny the state-supported doping that led to the ban, even going so far as to say the Russian doping expert who provided testimony "is 'under the control' of the FBI and 'American special services.'" He also made the cryptic statement that US agencies may be giving that expert "substances so that he says what's required."