He is no longer the President but Vladimir Putin sought to assure Russians that he remained firmly in charge during his annual phone-in with the public yesterday.

There was one question that nobody dared to ask: will Mr Putin be returning to the Kremlin? It was only after the three-hour broadcast that the Prime Minister, talking to the press, appeared to rule out an early restoration in place of his hand-picked successor, Dmitri Medvedev, despite a rapid rewriting of the Constitution to extend the presidential term from four years to six.

“The next presidential election will take place in 2012 ... For now, everyone must fulfil his duties in his place,” he said.

He underlined his dominance in the partnership by holding court while Mr Medvedev was on an official visit to India. Most of the 72 questions he answered concerned the global economic crisis. Mr Putin tried to convince Russians that they would suffer “minimal losses” from the downturn, despite growing redundancies, and promised state aid for farmers, pensioners and businesses.

His carefully cultivated image as the “national leader” of Russia was illustrated when a girl telephoned from Yakutia in the Far East to ask Mr Putin to send her a new dress for the new year. She called him “Uncle Volodya”, an affectionate version of Vladimir, prompting Mr Putin to invite the girl and her grandmother to come to Moscow to celebrate the holiday.

Mr Putin held out the prospect of better relations with the United States once Barack Obama entered the White House, even though foreign affairs are the responsibility of the President. He said that the transition team of Mr Obama had sent “positive signals” about the future of America's planned missile defence shield in Eastern Europe and the prospects of Nato membership for Ukraine and Georgia. Russia is bitterly opposed to both developments. “If these are not just words and translate into real actions, we will respond in kind,” he said.

He also appeared to confirm French claims that he had threatened to hang President Saakashvili of Georgia “by his balls” during the war over South Ossetia. Asked by a caller whether he had promised to “hang Saakashvili by one part”, Mr Putin replied to laughter: “But why only by one part?” He then compared the war in August to the invasion of Iraq and the execution of Saddam Hussein.

Organisers said that 2.2 million questions were submitted to the phone-in but the exercise was tightly controlled with questions coming from local party offices.

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