Putin says he will ask Assad about missing U.S. journalist Austin Tice at annual news conference

According to the ticker on Russian television, Putin's annual end-of-year press conference has finally concluded 4 hours and 31 minutes after it began. That makes it one of his longest ever conferences, although not quite a record which he set in 2013, with 4 hours and 47 minutes.

Asked whether Russia would be willing to implement any kind of ceasefire, whether permanent or not, Putin says “on the condition that the U.S. manages to persuade Kyiv.”

However, he said, “we don’t need a ceasefire, we need a long-term peace.”

The Russian president claims that he has previously agreed to ceasefires proposed by the Hungarian and Turkish leaders and blames Ukraine's president for stepping back from those deals.

Asked what he would do differently given the chance to go back to February 2022 — when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine — Putin says the decision “should have been made earlier.”

“We started the events of 2022 without any special preparation,” he adds. “But why did we start those? Because it was no longer possible to wait and stand still, and wait for the situation to get worse for us.”

When asked how the war in Ukraine has changed him, Putin says he “started making fewer jokes and almost stopped laughing.” 

He adds that he “began to improve my current skills in finding key questions.”

“My happiness will not be complete until all return from the front line,” he added.

President Joe Biden's pardon of his son Hunter Biden is among the litany of topics Putin has covered in his press conference.

Putin joked about Biden's official pardon of his son, who was set to face sentencing over federal gun and tax convictions, saying “silence is golden.”

Biden "is a politician," he added. "And it is always important [to know] what are you more — a politician or a human being. It turned out that Biden is more of a human being. I would not blame him for this.”

Earlier this month, the Kremlin criticized Biden's reversal of his long-held insistence that he would not use his executive powers for his son's case. Russian foreign affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at the time that it showed that the U.S. was “a caricature of democracy" in a comment to the pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia.

With Putin’s marathon press conference nearing the four-hour mark, the Russian leader has begun to tackle a “small blitz” of quick-fire questions.

Among other things, he's talked about micromanaging officials and his wish to meet more often with his friends, among whom he names former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and former French President Jacques Chirac.

Last year’s press conference lasted four hours and three minutes.

Putin told NBC News’ Keir Simmons that he would raise the case of missing journalist Austin Tice with former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“I have not seen President Assad when he arrived in Moscow,” he said. “But a person went missing 12 years ago, we understand what situation was there back then.”

Despite Putin’s claims during the press conference to be ready for “negotiations and compromises,” his would-be interlocutor, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, appeared to have a different take on what would be necessary to end the war in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian president, who attended this week’s European Council meeting, said in a post on X that “peace is possible if we stand united against Russian madness.”

When asked about the war in Gaza, Putin told reporters that he didn’t know “what Israel’s ultimate goals are in the Gaza Strip, but this deserves only condemnation.”

Israel is “continuing its unlawful settlement activities” in Gaza, he said, pointing to the United Nations Security Council's preferred two-state solution. 

Putin also commented on Israel’s military expansion into the Golan Heights in Syria following the collapse of the Assad regime. 

“I’m under the impression that Israel is not only not planning to leave Syrian territory, but is going to strengthen its position there,” he said.

Alphabet’s Google and YouTube should comply with Russian law, Putin said as he blamed YouTube for its slowing download speeds in the country.

“YouTube and Google must comply with our laws, must avoid any kind of fraud, namely, they must not abuse the network to achieve political goals of their governments,” he said.

Referring to slower download speeds, he said that after the West imposed sanctions, “Google cut funding and equipment supplies, and created problems for itself.”

In October, a Russian court demanded Google pay a fine so large that it was more than the world’s entire gross domestic product. But at the time, the Kremlin conceded to NBC News it was more a symbolic gesture for YouTube blocking 17 Russian television channels and other media outlets.

Asked if he was prepared to compromise “in any way” over Ukraine, Putin said that Russia has always said it is “ready for negotiations and compromises.”

“Politics is the art of compromise,” he added, before claiming that Ukraine is refusing to hold negotiations.

Referring to peace talks held between the two countries in 2022 in Turkey's capital, Istanbul, which led to the negotiation of a draft agreement, Putin blamed former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, “a man with a nice haircut,” for Ukraine backing out from the agreement.

In September that year, Johnson told the British Parliament that “any such deal or compromise would send a signal around the world that violence does pay off ... and the great democracies will not have the stomach to stick up for freedom.”

Returning to the topic of Syria, Putin said the fall of Bashar al-Assad did not constitute a defeat for Russia. 

“We came to Syria 10 years ago to prevent the creation of a terrorist enclave, similar to what could be seen in certain other countries, for example in Afghanistan,” he said. “As a whole, we achieved our aims.”

Russian military and aerial support allowed Assad to cling to power at crucial moments during Syria's 13-year-long civil war, with Russian airstrikes devastating the country's cities and killing thousands.

Moscow's air and naval facilities in Syria have long been a crucial hub for maintaining Russia’s influence in the Middle East, and Putin said earlier in his press conference that the Kremlin was in talks with Syria's new leaders about maintaining its control of the bases.

Bilateral relations between Russia and China are at an all-time high, Putin said, adding that there was “full trust and confidence” on both sides. 

“We’ll do nothing that will undermine the confidence,” he said, calling Chinese leader Xi Jinping his “friend.”

The two leaders last met in the Russian city of Kazan at the opening of the BRICS summit in October, where Xi told Putin that “the friendship between China and Russia will continue for generations, and great countries’ responsibility to their people will not change.” 

Invoking the history of Russia-China relations, Putin spoke of how the two countries fought together during World War II. "We were together back then and are together now,” he said.

The assassination by Ukraine of the head of Russia‘s chemical, radiological and biological weapons unit, Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, shows “the nature” of the Kyiv regime, Putin said.

During his annual press conference, the Russian president added that he was grateful to NBC News’ Keir Simmons, who asked a question about the killing for calling it an assassination because “it endangered the lives of others.”

Russia’s most senior military figure, Kirillov was killed by a bomb planted by Ukraine in a scooter in Moscow two days ago.

While Russia was ready for talks, Putin said that was not the case with Ukraine.

Putin was dismissive in response to another question from NBC News' Keir Simmons, who told the Russian leader that when he meets with President-elect Donald Trump. Moscow will have the weaker hand in negotiations.

He said he didn’t know when he would meet Trump but he was “ready,” adding that, “as for your comment about my weakness: those paying you wish for that.”

The president contended that Russia's military has, in fact, become stronger in recent years. “Our defense capabilities are the highest in the world, same for our military industry. Our forces are advancing.”

He went further, saying that Russia, “to a significant degree is in the state we were aiming for. She has become stronger. She has become a truly sovereign country.”

Putin has said he will ask the deposed president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, about the U.S. journalist Austin Tice, who went missing in the country 12 years ago. “I promise to ask this question,” he said in response to a question from NBC News’ Keir Simmons.

Assad fled to Russia earlier this month after being ousted by a rapid rebel advance that ended the country's 13-year-long civil war. Despite harboring Assad, Putin said he has yet to catch up with his ally.

“I have not seen President Assad when he arrived in Moscow,” he said. “But a person went missing 12 years ago, we understand what situation was there back then.”

NBC News exclusively obtained a letter that Tice’s mother had sent Putin late yesterday asking for his help in finding her missing son.

Russian forces are moving toward achieving their primary goals on the battlefield in Ukraine and were taking control of significant territory every day, Putin said.

“I must say that the situation is changing dramatically,” he said, adding that Russian forces were advancing along the entire battle front.

"There is movement along the entire front line. Every day,” he said.

The Russian president is circumspect when asked about whether the West understood last month's changes to Russia's nuclear doctrine. “I don’t know how they understood it," he said. "You’d have to ask them.”

He continued, saying about the West that “if such states pose a threat to us, we reserve the right to use our nuclear weapons against them as well.”

Last month, Putin made changes to Russia’s doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons, setting out new conditions for when the country could deploy its nuclear arsenal. 

Under the modified doctrine, Russia would treat an attack by a nonnuclear state, backed by a nuclear power, as a joint assault.

The Oreshnik missile defense system is a “modern, very new weapon,” Putin says in response to a question referring to the West’s doubts about Russia’s missile capabilities.

He said Western experts and should challenge Russia “to conduct some kind of technological experiment, a high-tech duel of the 21st century. Let them identify a strike target, say in Kyiv, concentrate all their air defense and missile defense forces there, and we will strike there with the ‘Oreshnik’ and see what happens. We are ready for such an experiment.” 

The Kremlin announced Monday that Russia would launch the serial production of the missiles in the “near future” to “protect the security of Russia and our allies.”

Russian forces first deployed the Oreshnik missile late last month, striking the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, after Kyiv used long-range missiles provided by France, the United States and the United Kingdom to strike targets within Russia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov who is moderating the conference scolded people for asking more than one question, only to be mildly mocked by Putin.

“You deprive others of time,” Peskov said to those peppering the Russian leader with questions.

But Putin’s reply, “Dont’ listen to Peskov,” was greeted with laughter from the crowd.

“We are advancing on all directions,” Putin says when asked about events in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces still hold territory. The situation there is “changing dramatically,” he said.

And as if to underscore that point, he mentions the military memorabilia given to him by troops who have been at the front. Two service members come up to the stage to hand him a banner from the soldiers of the 155th Marines Brigade of the Pacific Fleet and hold it aloft behind him.

When asked by a resident of Kursk's Bolshesoldastsky district about the destroyed villages there, Putin said it was certain that Ukrainians will be pushed out and everything will be rebuilt, and that their push into the region was pointless in the first place.

But Putin added that he will not “make any predictions about specific date” about when either of those things will happen.

When asked how Russia's economy remains afloat, Putin gives a characteristically laconic response.

"When everything is stable, we are bored, but when something major happens, when bullets are flying around — we are scared," the Russian president says.

While he points to what he says is record low unemployment of 2.3% and growing wages, he concedes that "inflation however is a worrying sign."

Still, he adds, "the situation is stable."

Putin takes the stage at 12:12 p.m. Moscow time. Jumping straight into questions, he talks about the Russian economy, telling his audience that "everything stands and falls with economy."

Despite inflation in the country at 9.3%, Putin says the "Russian economy is doing good," adding that wages and real disposable income have grown, with growth next year estimated to be around 3.9%.

Russia’s central bank may have to further increase interest rates above the current level of 21% that it raised the rate to in October.

After being subject to a Covid test 24 hours earlier, hundreds of journalists and some ordinary Russians stood in line on a freezing Moscow street as they waited to go through security and into the exhibition hall that began filling up two hours before the event began.

It’s an event that’s designed by the Kremlin to look democratic and to present Putin as a man of the people. Some attendees have arrived wearing traditional garb, hoping to ask about domestic issues like food prices.

The whole event is so carefully choreographed that even Putin, who is notoriously late for meetings, is expected to be on time.

Ksenia Sobchak, 43, is in the audience. She's the daughter of St. Petersburg’s first democratically elected mayor and she stood against Putin in Russia's 2018 election. Sobchak says she wants to be in Russia. But the country has changed over the past six years and she may be asking herself by how much.

Ahead of the conference, Russian citizens have submitted more than 2 million questions through phone calls, texts and social networks, according to the state-run news agency Tass. 

The questions are expected to range from Russia’s war in Ukraine to domestic issues such as rising prices, inflation and health care. 

Earlier this week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said questions would be collected from Russians in advance to allow the maximum number of people to lodge their appeals, in line with previous years.

Ahead of Putin's speech, at least one person was injured by Ukrainian missile and drone strikes on Russia's Rostov region, officials said today.

Acting Rostov Gov. Yuri Slyusar said a fire had been triggered at the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery after Ukraine had struck the region with at least 13 missiles and dozens of drone. He added that one person was injured.

The refinery has been repeatedly targeted by Ukraine which has been trying to take out parts of Russia’s oil infrastructure, which funds a significant chunk of the country's war economy.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is holding his end-of-year news conference today.

Ordinary citizens will also have a chance to call in with their questions, while journalists — some of whom lined up for hours in freezing temperatures to get into the Moscow event — will also get to put their queries to the Russian leader.

Putin has heavily limited his interaction with the foreign media since fighting began in Ukraine in February 2022.