In Putin’s bizarre, four-hour TV address, the devil was in all the detail that he let slip

The appearance of an AI-generated Vladimir Putin in conversation with the real one wasn’t even the most surprising moment in the Russian leader’s state-of-the-nation address, writes Chris Stevenson

Double cross: Putin takes a question from an AI-generated lookalike, billed as a ‘resident of St Petersburg’ (Russian pool)

It was a spectacle that Russia had to miss out on last year – Vladimir Putin's annual, end-of-year press conference thatends up being a mix of statements and questions from the assembled audience and others. The run-time extends into the hours: often three or four, depending on how generous the Russian leader is feeling.

With last year's cancellation, this is the first major news conference that Putin has given since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. A military campaign that the Kremlin appeared to think would last weeks is now close to entering its third year, with Moscow having ploughed billions of pounds, and hundreds of thousands of lives, into what is now an effective stalemate on the frontline. Stout Ukrainian defence, backed by Western support, have stymied his plans.

Almost every element of Putin's equivalent of Franklin D Roosevelt's fireside chats is stage-managed and carried by state television; he took questions for more than four hours. So the devil is in the detail, the little things that Putin lets slip while delivering what are mostly pre-prepared answers. The small cracks in the façade.