Spy Talk With Snowden And 17 Other Highlights From Vladimir Putin's Q&A

This year's was one of the shortest ever, at a mere 3 hours 56 minutes. That's a pittance compared with the longest in 2011, which went on for 4 hours 47 minutes as Putin answered 90 questions.

Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine last month has drawn widespread international condemnation and sanctions, but has elevated Putin's approval ratings to record highs on the back of a patriotic wave.

"Our servicemen stood behind the back of Crimea's self-defense forces" to protect a secession referendum the international community denounced as illegitimate, Putin said. "They acted politely, but resolutely and professionally. There was no other way to hold the referendum in an open, honest and honorable way and allow the people to express their opinion."

"There are no Russian units, special services, or instructors in the east of Ukraine," Putin said.

"Who are you going to use it against? Have you completely lost your marbles?" he said.

Putin repeatedly said that Russian-speaking southeastern Ukraine, which he claims is under threat from "fascists" and "neo-Nazis" backed by the new Kiev government, was traditionally part of Russia. He even referred to it by its Tsarist-era name of Novorossiya, or "New Russia."

Ukraine is on the brink of default and struggled to pay Russia its gas bill even before Moscow claimed it owes it $35.4 billion this month — a staggering increase over the $1.7 billion it was previously behind on. Putin said he would make Ukraine pay in advance for its gas if it couldn't come up with any money by May. That puts presidential elections scheduled for May 25, which Putin said were illegitimate, under serious threat.

"I'm not ashamed of my friends," Putin said, claiming that they had begun to make their fortunes before his rise to power. "Like many Russian citizens, they watched the events in Crimea on TV with tears in their eyes. By the way, Gennady Timchenko's wife couldn't pay for an operation because her card was blocked. In my view, that's a real human rights violation."

Putin complained at length that Kolomoisky's PrivatBank was not helping Crimeans transfer to the Russian financial system. Kolomoisky once referred to Putin as a "little schizophrenic," prompting him to rant about how he was a "scoundrel" who cheated a Russian oligarch in a business deal. On Thursday, he announced rewards of $10,000 for Ukrainians who captured Russian spies and $200,000 for freeing captured buildings.

Putin said he wanted to return "trust" to the U.S.-Russia relationship, which he said had been ruined by the invasion of Libya in 2011 and ousting of its dictator, Muammar al-Qaddafi.

"I can't say that I have any particular personal relations with the president of the U.S., but I think that he's a decent, brave man, and he'd definitely do it," Putin said.

"Our country, like a vacuum cleaner, has drawn representatives of diverse ethnic groups, nations, and nationalities into itself — actually, it's not just our general cultural code that was formed on the back of this, but also our exclusively powerful genetic code, because genes have been exchanged for all these centuries, and even millennia," Putin said. "I think that the Russian man and, to speak more broadly, the man of the Russian world, thinks, first and foremost, that man himself has some sort of higher moral purpose, some sort of higher moral beginning and thus a Russian man, a man of the Russian world is not turned towards his beloved self, although, of course, in everyday life we all think about how to live more richly, better, to be healthier, to help our families, but all the same these are not the main values — he is turned outwards."