He confronted President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia about meddling in American elections, presented him with a copy of the special counsel’s indictment of a dozen Russian intelligence agents and, to Mr. Putin’s clear displeasure, asked why so many of his political opponents ended up dead.

So Chris Wallace, after wrapping up his contentious interview with the Russian leader in Helsinki last week, did the logical next thing: He took a vacation.

To Russia.

“I had a few doubts,” the Fox News anchor said by phone the other day from St. Petersburg, where he and his wife, Lorraine, were preparing for an evening at the Mariinsky Ballet. “But I figured, Why not?”

Well, one could think of a few reasons. Mr. Putin, after all, does not take kindly to being challenged. But besides being recognized on the street a few times — “Is that the fellow who interviewed President Putin?” — Mr. Wallace said that his travels (and his hotel rooms) had gone undisturbed: “There’s been no sign of any trouble or anything at all.”