MOSCOW — With an eye to his presidential candidacy, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia promoted his domestic record throughout his annual national news conference on Thursday. But he did save a few jabs for the United States on election meddling and Olympic doping — at one point asking members of Congress, “Are you normal at all?”

This was Mr. Putin’s 13th such news conference, and the formula has become so worn that it is sometimes compared to the movie “Groundhog Day,” in which the hero relives the same moment repeatedly.

The nearly four-hour marathon, broadcast live nationwide, started with a broad query about why Mr. Putin was running for re-election in March 2018. This gave him an opening to unleash a welter of positive economic data, seemingly with the intent of reminding Russians how much the country has improved since he first became president, in 2000.

The questions drifted along on domestic matters for a while, until a couple of foreign correspondents, usually planted in advance, switched the topic briefly to possible Russian collusion with the Trump campaign and to North Korea.