Doug Stanglin

USATODAY

In a marathon, year-end news conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin praised President-elect Donald Trump on Friday for tapping into the mood of American voters, but took a swipe at Democrats, saying they are losing on many fronts and are off base in trying to blame Trump's victory on external factors.

"Trump understood the mood of the people and kept going until the end, when nobody believed in him," Putin said, smiling. "Except for you and me."

The Russian leader also said he hopes to develop “business-like and constructive relations that would benefit both Russia and the United States.”

As for the elections, in which the U.S. accused Russia of interference, Putin said Democrats have only themselves to blame for their losses.

"They (the Democrats) are losing on all fronts and looking elsewhere for things to blame," he told reporters in a news conference that lasted nearly four hours. "In my view this, how shall I say it, degrades their own dignity. You need to learn how to lose gracefully."

Accusing the Democrats of forgetting the "meaning of their own name," Putin said "outstanding figures in American history from the ranks of the Democratic Party would likely be turning in their graves. Roosevelt certainly would be."

Putin said he hopes to have a meeting soon with Trump to discuss how to improve ties, adding Russia’s relations with the United States and its allies have fallen to their lowest level since the Cold War era. He said he agrees with Trump’s assessment of the current low level of U.S.-Russian relations, adding they “can’t be worse.”

Later on Friday, the Trump organization later released a copy of letter from Putin to Trump in which the Russian leader expressed his "warmest Christmas and New Year greetings" to the president-elect.

Putin writes that Trump becomes president, he hopes the two leaders "acting in a "contructive and pragmatic manner" can take "real steps to restore the framework of bilateral cooperation in different areas." and bring collaboration on the international scene "to a qualitatively new level."

Trump, issued a statement, in which he said he had received a "very nice letter" from Russian leader. "His thoughts are correct," Trump said. "I hope both sides are able to live up to these thoughts, and we do not have to travel an alternate path."

In the wide-ranging, televised news conference, the Russian president said he sees “nothing unusual” in the U.S. president-elect's pledge to strengthen U.S. nuclear forces, calling Trump's statement in line with his campaign promises.

Putin conceded the U.S. has a bigger military, but said Russia's military is stronger than any potential foe.

“Indeed, they (the U.S.) have more missiles, more submarines and more aircraft carriers, we aren’t arguing with that, but we are simply stronger than any aggressor.” Putin said military modernization helped strengthen the Russia's nuclear forces.

Regarding U.S. accusations that Russian tried to influence the U.S. election by hacking into the computers of the Democratic party, Putin said the hackers could have been located anywhere. He shrugged off Washington’s claims of their Russian affiliation.

He added, however, that U.S. Democrats should have apologized to American voters over the information revealed by hackers who posted politically embarrassing emails from Democratic National Committee staffers.

Asked how he responded when President Obama raised the Russian hacking accusation in a private conversation, telling the Russian leader to "cut it out," Putin said he never makes confidential conversations public.

The news conference touched on a wide variety of topics, from the assassination of a Russian envoy in Turkey to charges of doping by Russian athletes to events in Ukraine.

Among the highlights, Putin:

— Called for a ceasefire across Syria followed by peace talks, now that Syrian government forces have taken full control of Aleppo. “The next stage should be a ceasefire on the entire territory of Syria and the launch of talks on a political settlement.”

— Said Russia is working to uproot doping among Olympic athletes, but calls some of the charges against Russia about widespread doping unfair.

— Called the fatal shooting of Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov on Monday in Ankara “an attack on Russia-Turkey relations,” but said it would not hurt cooperation between the two countries. Putin noted the killer was a police officer and said the attack reflected a high level of “penetration of destructive forces” into the Turkish military and security forces.

— Declared that peace talks, sponsored by France and Germany should remain the basis for efforts to settle the conflict in eastern Ukraine. A shaky peace deal brokered by Berlin and Paris in early 2015 has helped lower the scale of fighting in eastern Ukraine. More than 9,600 people have died in battles between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia separatists that erupted there in April 2014. However, clashes have continued and political settlement has stalled.