Russian President Vladimir Putin has sounded the alarm at what he sees is taking place in Washington -- a determined attempt to neutralize and even remove Donald Trump from power.

Mr. Putin made the remarks at a joint press conference with Moldova's new president, Igor Dodon, who is vititing Moscow.

Putin was quoted by Sputnik:

"In my opinion, there are several goals, some are obvious. The first is to undermine the legitimacy of the elected president of the United States. Incidentally, in this connection I would like to note that — whether people who do it want it or don't want — they greatly damage US interests."



"It seems that they trained for this in Kiev and now are ready to organize a 'Maidan' in Washington not to let Trump assume office," Putin said.



"The second goal is to tie the hands of legs of the newly-elect president related to the implementation of his pre-election campaign's promises to the American people and the international community," he added.

Putin also made reference to last week's lascivious so-called intel report carried by CNN and Buzzfeed, alleging that Trump engaged in embarrassing sexual acts with Russian prostitutes on a past visit to Moscow, which the Russian government may have had evidence of.

Putin derided the claims as absurd:

"These claims are an obvious fake. Trump, when he came to Moscow a few years ago was not a politician. We did not even know about his political ambitions, he was just a businessman, one of the richest men in America. Is someone really thinking that our intelligence agencies are chasing every American billionaire, or what? Of course not! It's just a complete nonsense."

On a lighter note, Putin made the observation: "I can't imagine Trump came to Moscow just to meet some beautiful girls....although obviously, without doubt we have the best in the world."



He followed up the remark, which drew some laughs from reporters, by saying prostitution was obviously a serious and tragic problem.

When Donald Trump takes the oath of office this Friday, he will have a tentative ally in the Kremlin. The question is whether that is more of a help or a hindrance to Trump's battle with the US establishment.