President Donald Trump is “right” to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, Russia’s leader said Thursday.

Vladimir Putin's remarks came as part of his end-of-year news conference, a pageantry-laden and heavily-scripted annual event in Moscow where the Russian president fields dozens of questions on domestic and foreign policy.

Putin referred to Trump informally as "Donald." That's his name of course but it may not help dispel suggestions the two men are closer than some think is politically acceptable amid conclusions reached by U.S. intelligence agencies that Moscow tried to sway the 2016 U.S. presidential election in favor of Trump, and as special counsel Robert Mueller's investigations into alleged Russia interference gather pace.

Putin said he agreed with Trump's decision to pull 2,000 U.S. troops out of northern Syria where they have been helping to fight the Islamic State group extremists because "I don't think they're needed. Let's not forget that the presence of (U.S.) troops there is illegitimate. The U.S. is there without backing from the United Nations or an invitation from the Syrian government. Russia is there at the invitation of the Syrian government. But if the U.S. has decided to withdraw, that's good," he said.

Russia is a longtime Syrian ally. It entered the conflict in 2015 to shore up President Bashar Assad's struggling regime from advancing Islamic State fighters and other rebel groups. Putin has also sought to assert his country's power on the world stage.

Putin added Thursday that it remains to be seen whether Trump will actually deliver on his withdrawal promise. "How long has the U.S. been in Afghanistan? 17 years? And almost every year they say they’re pulling out their troops," he said.

Security analysts meanwhile believe that between 20,000-30,000 Islamic State extremists are still active in Iraq and Syria, and that Trump’s decision is premature. In a speech on the Senate floor late Wednesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham railed against Trump's decision, calling the move "disastrous" and a "stain" on its "honor."

More:Trump’s troop withdrawal caps failed US policy in Syria, experts say

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More:Syria conflict explained: How did we end up here?

Trump pushed back against that rhetoric Thursday.

"Russia, Iran, Syria & many others are not happy about the U.S. leaving, despite what the Fake News says, because now they will have to fight ISIS and others, who they hate, without us," Trump tweeted Thursday. "Does the USA want to be the Policeman of the Middle East, getting NOTHING but spending precious lives and trillions of dollars protecting others who, in almost all cases, do not appreciate what we are doing?"

The news conference format allowed Putin to hail his achievements over the past year. Reporters, screened in advance for their Kremlin friendliness, are not permitted to ask follow-up questions – though some pointed remarks and allegations get through.

It lasted for about 4 hours. In 2008, it ran to almost five. Around 1,700 journalists were accredited for this year's event. Many tried to catch Putin's attention by waving home-made signs with eye-catching slogans or photos of Putin hunting or bare-chested on horseback. Putin promotes himself as an outdoors-man.

Among the other topics Putin addressed:

NUCLEAR WAR: A GROWING THREAT

Russia's leader said President Donald Trump's decision to terminate the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces, or INF, Treaty – an arms control accord between the United States and Russia – increased the threat of a nuclear war and that a conflict of that caliber "could lead to the destruction of civilization as a whole and maybe even our planet." Putin noted, citing Western security analysts, that if the U.S. decides to put intermediate-range ballistic missiles in Europe, any launch of such a missile could be mistaken for the launch of a nuclear-tipped one and trigger a global catastrophe.

MARIA BUTINA DID NOTHING WRONG

Putin said Maria Butina, a 30-year-old Russian national who admitted in U.S. federal court last week that she attempted to secretly infiltrate U.S. political groups at Russia’s behest “hasn’t carried out any tasks set by the government, government organs, no matter what she says.” Putin claimed Butina made the guilty plea because of the threat of a long prison sentence, possibly 12-15 years. He described the case against her as completely fabricated. Butina pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as an agent for the Kremlin without registering in the U.S. "We'll see how this case ends," he said.

He said that accusations from the U.S. and Britain that Russia involvement in the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripral and his daughter in Salisbury, England, was part of Western efforts to isolate and weaken Russia.

WILL RUSSIA'S MOST ELIGIBLE BACHELOR REMARRY? PROBABLY. IN TIME

"As a decent person, I will have to do that sometime," Putin, 65, said when his personal life came up. He divorced in 2013. Putin has two daughters from the marriage to his ex-wife Lyudmila Shkrebneva, a former flight attendant. Rumors have circulated that he may have a third daughter with ex-gymnast Alina Kabaeva, 35, a woman with whom he has been romantically linked for years. Their relationship has not been confirmed.

SANCTIONS? WHAT SANCTIONS? GDP IS UP

Putin said Russia’s gross domestic product will grow by 1.8 percent this year, while industrial output has grown faster at 3 percent. Both exceeded expectations. Russia's hard currency reserves also increased: from $432 billion at the start of the year to $464 billion now. The positive statistics follow a difficult period in recent years when Russia’s economy has suffered a combined blow of low oil prices and Western sanctions over its actions and threats to Ukraine's territorial sovereignty and for attacks on allied soil including cyber-warfare and the attempted nerve-agent assassination of Skripal.