With Russia’s political environment growing more chaotic, just how much is President Vladimir Putin in control? Photograph by Sasha Mordovets / Getty

Almost fourteen hundred reporters gathered in the Kremlin on Wednesday for Vladimir Putin's annual press conference. The most anxious ones held signs with the name of their region, their outlet, or the topic of their question. Each time a lucky one was picked, the signs went down, only to rise again, as soon as the President finished his answer. During the three-hour event, about four dozen journalists had a chance to speak. A few were more daring than usual this year, but Putin’s answers, as on previous occasions, demonstrated his trademark confidence in unaccountability.

Putin mentioned the widely acknowledged economic problems: the dramatic drop in the price of oil, the 3.7 per cent fall of the gross domestic product, the 12.3 per cent inflation, the decrease in incomes. Then he drowned the audience in economic statistics that have little bearing on people’s lives, but sounded upbeat, unlike the grim economic forecasts that one hears these days from Cabinet members as well as independent analysts, Russian and foreign. They predict a prolonged crisis ahead, but Putin announced that “the peak of the crisis is past us.” He mentioned that the Russian budget is based on the projected price of fifty dollars per barrel of oil, while the real price had dropped below forty. “We will probably have to correct something,” he said, without specifying what that “something” might be. Last month, the Russian finance minister said that tax increases are inevitable, and cuts to social expenditures have already begun.

Putin dismissed the cost of the Russian military campaign in Syria, which “does not involve any serious strain on the budget,” he said, adding that the funds “earmarked for military training and exercises” were “retargeted” to the operation in Syria. “Something needs to be thrown in,” he said, again without bothering to explain what that “something” would be. With stunning cynicism, he described the Russian airstrikes in Syria as a perfect substitute for military exercises. “It is difficult to think of a better training exercise,” he said. “We can keep training for quite a long time there without unduly denting our budget.” The human cost in Syria (and among Russians taking part in the military operation) was not even raised. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that up to nine Russian military contractors were killed in Syria in October.

The intrepid anti-corruption activist Alexey Navalny recently released a film that makes serious allegations against Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika. The film shows a newly built five-star hotel in Greece, which is co-owned by Chaika’s son and Chaika’s deputy’s ex-wife. The same woman is alleged to have close business connections with wives of convicted criminals (members of a violent gang that for years engaged in murder and rape), while Chaika’s son is said to be involved in the predatory takeover of a large business venture in Siberia. The film, which is based on legal documents, was posted online earlier this month and has been watched by more than 3.8 million people. When asked about Navalny’s allegations, Putin referred to them as “problems of secondary importance” that “can happen anywhere.” ”We have to understand: Did the Prosecutor General’s children commit an offense or not? Does anything point to a conflict of interest in the Prosecutor General’s work?” he asked. “All the information should be carefully reviewed.” (Chaika said the allegations are completely unfounded and claimed that the film was commissioned by William Browder, the founder of Hermitage Capital and a Putin critic, and “the security services behind him.” Browder said he had nothing to do with the film. Putin’s spokesman has said that the allegations “did not provoke our interest” because they were related to Chaika’s sons, not Chaika himself. )

Putin gave a fuzzy answer about a Russian governor’s alleged involvement in the severe beating of the journalist Oleg Kashin. He gave another shockingly cynical response to a question about the investigation of the murder of Boris Nemtsov, a prominent political figure who was shot, in February, near the Kremlin. Before making the routine but at least morally appropriate remark “this is a crime that has to be investigated, and the culprits punished,” Putin said, “I never spoiled relations with him, but he chose this path of political fighting—personal attacks and the like. That said, I’m used to this. He wasn’t alone.” Incredibly, Putin added, “This doesn’t mean at all that the man should be killed.”

Putin sounded bellicose with regard to Turkey, which last month downed a Russian jet. He repeated the comment he made at the time, that the action was a “stab in the back,” and emphasized that he knew nothing about “the so-called Turkomans,” Syrian Turks who live in the region where the jet was downed. He said the Turks should have “picked up the phone” and asked the Russian military “not to hit certain areas.”

In fact, in late November, the Turkish foreign ministry summoned Russia's ambassador to protest the “intensive” bombing of Turkmen villages in northern Syria by Russian warplanes. “It was stressed that the Russian side's actions were not a fight against terror, but they bombed civilian Turkmen villages and this could lead to serious consequences,” a statement from the Turkish foreign ministry said at the time.

Putin did not seem to care about this or other inconsistencies. They may be discussed in the independent media or online, but the ever-loyal television channels would never report on them before Putin’s popular majority.

Still, one is struck not just by the inconsistencies in Putin’s speech but by what look like increasing irregularities in his management. Nemtsov was killed and nobody even understood the purpose of the crime, and internecine feuds among the elites have increasingly come into public view. The feared Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov reportedly is in conflict with the Federal Security Service; the “Chechen leadership and its security bodies” are said to have sabotaged the investigation of Nemtsov’s killing. Several governors have been arrested in the past few months, and political analysts expect more arrests of regional leaders. A police general who was prosecuted after falling out with state security officials jumped (or was thrown) out of a jail window. All of this is occurring alongside a dangerous deterioration of the economy.

Putin has been repeatedly referred to as Russia’s “tsar.” (A new biography by Steven Lee Myers is titled “The New Tsar.”) His power is unchallenged and unchecked. Everyone recognizes his superior authority, and everyone pledges allegiance. But whether he’s preoccupied with wars and geopolitics or just bored or distracted, the political environment in Russia is growing more chaotic. Putin may be the Russian tsar, but it is less clear to what extent he is in control.