Russian President Vladimir Putin revived two of his political traditions Thursday; one of them went according to script, the other went off the rails. 

Throughout his presidency, Putin has made it a tradition to hold an end-of-the-year press conference and a call-in Q&A session with the public. Last year, he took a break from both as his invasion of Ukraine had resulted in immense economic damage to Russia and extraordinary losses in the Russian military, as well as making him look much smaller and less powerful than he had been.

The press conference was pretty much what you'd expect from a stump-broke press corps that knows lack of adoring copy results in a prison cell, an excursion to one of the meatgrinders in Ukraine, or standing too close to the window in your apartment. There were superficially "tough" questions designed to create a Potemkin version of a free press. What was missing were follow-up questions that left the matter settled with Putin's non-answers.

When the call-in Q&A started, the fun began.

“When will the war end? When will there be peace in the skies? When will peace talks begin?”

“Public officials have accounts and property overseas, their children study there too. Why would they care about Russia’s interests, and how can they occupy such high positions?”

“Why does your reality differ from ours?”

“We’ve sent gas to China, to Europe, when will Khakassia [region of Siberia, Russia] receive gas?”

“Mr President, when will real Russia stop being different from the one on TV?” 

“Hello, how can I move to the Russia they talk about on Channel One?”

“For how long will you keep manipulating the percentage of inflation?”

“Why does a tray of eggs cost 550 roubles [~ $6] in Dagestan?”

“If Crimea is part of Russia, why does my mobile network switch on roaming after crossing the bridge to Crimea?”

“Cucumbers 900 roubles/kilo, tomatoes 950 roubles/kilo, lettuce costs 1,500. I won’t even bring up the price of fruit. Give us normal prices!”

This is not to say all the questions were edgy; most were of the "when will Zelensky see sense" type and the fawning questions of the type we've grown to expect from a Biden press conference. What was different was that the questions appeared on screen, and someone let them through. However, after looking through the transcript, I don't think any were asked or answered.

I'm assuming there was some propaganda strategy behind the rogue questions seeping through. I don't think the producers just screwed the pooch and let it happen, and I don't believe real people asked them. No matter the strategy, there is a danger in allowing those questions to be asked because a non-trivial number of Russians, not just those on the left side of the IQ Bell Curve, never really thought about them much, and now they will.