Live Blog: Putin Holding Televised Q&A

Final Summary

-- In his annual question-and-answer session with the public, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Western sanctions are aimed at restraining Russia, asserting that Moscow's role in the crisis and conflict in Ukraine are only a pretext for the punitive measures imposed by the European Union, United States, and other nations.​

-- He said that "the Russian army is not in Ukraine," repeating Moscow's denial that it has sent troops to aid pro-Russian rebels.

-- Putin highlighted the recent rise of Russia's ruble currency, which has gained more than 20 percent in 2015 after a steep decline last year. He also touted high oil production figures and a good harvest. He said Russians are living longer and death rates decreasing.

-- Putin linked his decision to lift a ban on supplying Iran with surface-to-air S-300 missiles with what he said was Tehran's demonstrated desire to resolve a yearslong dispute over its nuclear program, which Western nations fear is aimed at developing nuclear weapons.

-- Putin took on comparisons that suggest parallels between the reigns of Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin, saying that "Nazism and Stalinism cannot be put on the same desk...because the Nazis directly, openly, and publicly announced as one of their goals the annihilation of concrete ethnic groups -- Jews, Gypsies, Slavs."

-- He described the killing of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov as "tragic and shameful" and praised investigators for identifying and arresting five suspects days after Nemstov was gunned down steps from the Kremlin on February 27.

-- Putin said his country will never be a "vassal" of the United States. He said there are "superpowers" that "consider themselves the only center of power in the world."