Confident Putin suggests he has the winning hand in Ukraine

President Vladimir V. Putin cast himself Thursday as a wartime leader in complete control of his invasion and his nation. His confidence was on display at a staged, four-hour news conference that underscored the Russian leader’s apparent determination to protect Ukraine and the West.

Mr Putin said his vaguely defined objectives of “demilitarization” and “denazification” of Ukraine – the same baseless justifications he used to launch the invasion almost two years ago – had not changed. He reiterated his openness to peace talks but showed no willingness to compromise. And he boasted that Western support for Ukraine was drying up, a sign that the impasse in Washington over more funding for Kiev had helped the mood in the Kremlin.

“Peace will come if we achieve our goals,” Putin said. Referring to Western military aid to Ukraine, he added: “They get everything for free. But these freebies may run out at some point, and it appears they are already gone.”

For the first time, Mr. Putin commented on the Russian arrest last March of Evan Gershkovich, a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, who is in pretrial detention in Moscow on espionage charges that he, his employer and the U.S. government have vehemently denied. Analysts have said that Mr. Gershkovich’s best hope for release is a prisoner exchange with the United States or another Western country.

“We want to make a deal, but it must be mutually acceptable to both sides,” Putin said at the news conference, referring to Mr. Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, a former marine and business executive. Mr. Whelan is serving a 16-year prison sentence in Russia on espionage charges that the United States calls politically motivated.

The Russian leader’s action came just hours after a Moscow court upheld Mr Gershkovich’s detention with a ruling that will leave the journalist – who has been held for 260 days – in custody until at least the end of January. The Foreign Office said last week that Russia had rejected a “substantial offer” that would have freed him and Mr Whelan.

“It’s not that we refuse to give them back; we have not refused,” the Russian leader said, adding: “There is contact and dialogue on this with our American partners.”

Mr Putin spoke on Thursday from a position of relative strength. Russian forces have repelled Ukraine’s counter-offensive this year and are now attacking in several areas along the front line. Military production in Russia is increasing and Western sanctions have failed to cripple the economy.

At the same time, Ukraine is facing some of the greatest challenges of the war as the country is stuck on the battlefield and urgently needs to strengthen Western support. Just this week, President Volodymyr Zelensky left Washington empty-handed as he tried to convince Congress to pass a substantial aid package.

Ukraine got a glimmer of good news on Thursday when the European Union agreed to officially open talks for Kiev to join the bloc. Accession may take years, but any attempt by Ukraine to move closer to the West has always irritated Mr Putin, including a potential trade agreement that pressured Russia to give up on Kiev in 2013.

Mr. Putin spoke at a nationally televised event near the Kremlin that highlighted two key points from his more than two decades of rule: his year-end news conference, at which hundreds of journalists try to get the president’s attention by shouting and holding up signs. ; and his annual call-in show, which attracts thousands of ordinary Russians, many of whom try to get him to intervene to solve local problems.

Putin did not host either event last year, a sign that he had little good news to report after the disastrous start to his invasion of Ukraine. This year, for the first time, the Kremlin combined the two, turning Thursday’s spectacle into a dazzling broadcast, alternating between questions from journalists in the audience and carefully selected notes and videos sent in by the audience.

Throughout the event, Mr. Putin tried to appear confident and authoritative. Next spring’s presidential election, which is expected to give him a new six-year term, went largely unmentioned, suggesting the president saw no need even for perfunctory campaigning. A journalist from the Russian Far East expressed support for Putin’s candidacy, telling the Russian leader that “you have been in power as long as I can remember.”

Asked about the problems, Mr Putin largely dismissed them, even when it came to the skyrocketing price of eggs. He responded to a question about this with a deadpan, inappropriate joke before apologizing for his government’s inability to get the problem under control. And when a military correspondent asked about the shortage of drones on the front lines, Putin replied: “You can’t see it getting better.”

Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, wrote: “Putin is not interested in currying favors or smearing people. He believes that the people are behind him and that is why he allows himself to behave very reserved.”

The event’s stage art highlighted the war in Ukraine, which the Kremlin continues to describe as “the special military operation.” The first 90 minutes feature a wounded soldier, two military bloggers and three video questions from Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia. Unlike the early months of the war, when Russian officials tried to hide its reality from the public, the Kremlin now apparently sees the war as a winning message.

But Putin also tried to reassure Russians that the invasion would not bring new unrest to their lives. He said he saw no need for a new military draft because, he claimed, about 500,000 people had volunteered for military service.

“Why do we need mobilization?” said Mr Putin. “Today that is not necessary.”

The program, carefully curated to convey a veneer of openness, took place in Moscow’s Gostiny Dvor, a large former market hall a stone’s throw from Red Square. It was decorated with large video screens showing questions from all over Russia and occupied Ukrainian territories for about twenty seconds at a time. Most of them went unanswered.

As time passed, people in the audience started shouting the names of their cities: “Omsk!” “Ufa!” – and their news channels in hopes of asking them questions. In the background, a constant ticker of videos and questions – reminiscent of the blue background with the white font “Jeopardy!” – were broadcast on four screens on the wall.

At one point, Putin gave the floor to two young men from Luhansk and Donetsk, Ukrainian territories that Russia illegally annexed last year. Their comments underlined the propaganda nature of the event.

“We came without any questions; we have nothing to complain about,” said the questioner from Luhansk. “We came to thank you for making us part of Russia.”

But during the discussion, many questions from the occupied territories were shown on the big screens.

“In Mariupol, many of the old elevators in high-rise buildings were disabled after the liberation. When will there be new ones? I live on the eighth floor and am 80 years old,” one person wrote.

Many questions focused on basic quality of life issues, topics that ordinary Russians faced every day: inflation, a lack of infrastructure and rising energy prices in cities where temperatures reach minus 22 Fahrenheit.

The session offers regular Russians a chance to bring their hyper-local issues to the president. Mr. Putin signed a bill in 2004 that abolished the direct election of regional governors. Many people view local and regional authorities as corrupt, but believe in the president.

That was certainly how Mr. Putin behaved, and not as someone seeking support for re-election. He did not make many campaign promises and was very confident in his answers, taking people’s problems to local and regional authorities and calling them ‘technical problems’.

Mr Putin has been in power in Russia since 1999, either as president or prime minister. If he wins in March as expected and serves out the term, he would become the longest-serving Russian leader since Empress Catherine the Great in the 18th century. century,

Mr. Putin did not address the vast inequality in Russia, but the questions scrolling behind him reminded us that there were those who expected more.

The list of questions included this: “Why is your reality so different from our existence?” Another questioner, using Mr Putin’s patronymic as a sign of respect, wrote: “Vladimir Vladimirovich, please tell us: when are we going to live better?”

Anatoly Kurmanayev contributed reporting from Berlin, and Ivan Nechepurenko from Tbilisi, Georgia.