Azernews.Az

MOSCOW – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has boasted about his government's achievements, saying Russians' quality of life is improving two years after the global financial crisis battered his country. He spoke during an annual live television question-and-answer call-in program in which he denounced jailed former tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky as a "thief." Radio Liberty reported.

Taking his seat in front of a studio audience, a relaxed-looking Putin said Russia's GDP had grown by almost 4 percent this year, which he said showed the country has put the worst of the financial crisis behind it. Putin reeled off an impressive list of economic and sociological statistics, saying Russians' quality of life is improving.

"Look, last year we had 6.02 million unemployed," he said. "This year, we cut unemployment by a million two-hundred thousand jobs, by bringing back old jobs and creating new ones. I can tell you that's a very good indicator."

The prime minister fielded questions from ordinary Russians at video links around the country in the highly stage-managed performance. Typically a marathon lasting many hours, the program provides Putin a platform for burnishing his status as the country's supreme leader amid speculation he'll run for president again in 2012.

This time, he lavished praise on the state for building housing, especially for people who lost homes during a series of fires that swept across Russia during a record drought last summer, something Putin today said was the country's worst development last year. The government was heavily criticized at the time for failing to combat the blazes and constructing flimsy new housing on the cheap.

But a video link from a village south of Moscow that had burned to the ground showed neat rows of tiny houses Putin praised for their modernity.

"Before, as a rule, such villages had nothing except a weak electricity line," he said. "Now there's gas, normal electricity, plumbing, sewage, more than a hundred television channels and broadband Internet."

Analysts usually parse Putin's words for signs of policymaking and power struggles behind the closed doors of the country's authoritarian system. Dominating speculation is the fate of jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who's awaiting a verdict in a second trial on charges of embezzlement. Supporters of Russia's onetime richest man say he was arrested in 2003 for posing a political threat to Putin.

Although Khodorkovsky is still waiting for a verdict, Putin said Khodorkovsky's crimes had been "proven in court." Quipping in response to a question about Khodorkovsky, Putin quoted a line from a Soviet-era film starring the bard Vladimir Vysotsky.

"Just like the well-known character played by Vladimir Vysotsky, I believe that 'a thief should be in jail,'" he said.

A Moscow court on December 15 postponed the reading of a judgment in the Khodorkovsky case until the end of the month. Kremlin critics believe the new date was picked to minimize publicity for what they say is a modern version of a Soviet political show trial.

Putin's statement today will add to the expectation Khodorkovsky will receive close to the full possible sentence of 14 years, which prosecutors have asked to include time served.