MOSCOW >> A somewhat humbled, or at least not swaggering, President Vladimir Putin held his annual, live call-in show Thursday, with his answers to the heavily choreographed calls intended to underscore his concern for the plight of ordinary Russians amid a second, punishing year of recession.

Largely gone were the diatribes against opponents like the United States and Turkey. In their place were praise for domestic cheese and fish producers and government efforts to keep prices down for everything.

Perhaps the entire 3 hour and 40 minute marathon, the 14th yearly session of the event called “Direct Line,” could best be summed up in the answer to a first-grader named Alina. She asked the president whether he thought a Russian woman could become president. Her dad had told her that only a man like Putin could handle America, she said.

“We should not be thinking about how to cope with America, we should think about how to cope with our internal problems, our internal issues,” Putin answered. “Roads, problems with the public health service, the education system, the development of our economy, economic recovery, problems of setting the pace of growth.”

If Russia addressed those problems, Putin, said, it would not have to cope with anyone because the country would feel “invulnerable.”

But Russians were clearly feeling vulnerable, as questions poured in about high prices, unpaid wages, rising utility bills, difficulties caused by the low price of oil and the closing of schools, hospitals and kindergartens. In all, around 3 million questions were posed, television executives said, of which Putin answered about 60.

The first questions came from two studio anchors who directed them from various social media platforms, one about the steep rise in prices and the second about when the economy would hit bottom.

“The government’s economic officials keep telling us that we have hit the bottom in the crisis and are now on the way up again,” noted the caller. “They’ve already said this seven times. Where is the Russian economy now as you see it?”

Putin, who had previously predicted that economic growth would rebound by now, was more cautious this time, calling it a “gray period.” The president admitted that the economy had shrunk by 3.7 percent last year, but said he expected it would only contract by 0.3 percent in 2016 and register modest growth after that.

He also said there was enough money in the two main sovereign wealth funds and other reserves to tide Russia over for the next four years.

That is a far rosier picture than outside analysts have predicted. The World Bank, for example, estimated this month that the economy would contract by 1.9 percent this year and said that about 20 million Russians were now living below the poverty line. Other analysts have put the contraction figure lower, about 0.9 percent. There have also been widespread predictions that the main sovereign wealth fund, the Reserve Fund, could run dry by next year at current spending levels.

Putin spent some time defending the higher prices caused by a ban imposed on some food imports from Western nations in retaliation for their sanctions over Russian military actions in Ukraine. In the long run it would make Russia more secure by producing more of its own food, he said, adding that, “all in all, I fully understand, I’m fully aware that that’s a burden for people, for consumers.”

He also said that the government would maintain a high level of orders to military factories even as the Kremlin has cut defense spending, a claim immediately questioned by experts.

A poll taken by the Levada Center in the weeks leading up to the call-in show indicated that economic matters were very much on people’s minds, far outpacing their interest in foreign policy. Asked their main concern at the moment, 49 percent said income level and the economy; 28 percent said social benefits and medical costs; 21 percent said price hikes and the rest all had to do with the economy or related issues like corruption, housing and bad roads.

“People want to know how long will this situation last, when some improvement can be expected,” Aleksey Grazhdankin, the deputy head of the center, wrote in an analysis that accompanied the numbers. The poll of 1,600 people was conducted at the end of March in 48 regions, the release said.

There were a few unscripted moments. As questions sent by text message flashed by on the screen, one referred to allegations that associates of Putin had siphoned off some $2 billion into an offshore account set up through a law office in Panama. “Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are,” the question said, quoting a Russian proverb.

As he did when the news first broke, Putin denied there was any substance to the allegations and suggested that others were trying to embarrass Russia, naming Goldman Sachs as the owner of Suddeutsche Zeitung, the German newspaper that was the recipient of the leak known as the Panama Papers.

There were complaints from members of the studio audience on perennial issues, like business inspections carried out by government agents that impeded entrepreneurial work. Putin said that the number of such inspections had been reduced by one-third.

Even as he was speaking, however, two economic behemoths were being put under the microscope. Inspectors were combing through the offices of Mikhail D. Prokhorov, the billionaire owner of the Brooklyn Nets, whose RBK newspaper has published a string of articles critical of figures close to Putin. Investigators seized documents related to tax matters and fraud, the Interfax news agency cited a law enforcement source as saying.

Inspectors also raided the corporate offices of Ikea, the Swedish retail giant, according to an announcement by the company’s lawyer. Officials have long cast an envious eye on the booming trade that the chain maintains in Russia, and there is now a fight over the land on which one of its biggest stores in Moscow sits.

Some problems seemed to be addressed instantly. After the very first caller, from the city of Omsk, complained about the poor state of the roads there, the city posted on Twitter pictures of new asphalt being laid down before Putin was off the air. A complaint about unpaid wages in a far eastern factory prompted an immediate investigation.

Amid all the economic issues, there were some questions on foreign policy. Putin said that the Russian military had stabilized the situation in Syria and left enough forces behind to allow the government to carry on offensive action if needed.

He praised President Barack Obama for admitting that Libya was his biggest mistake, while noting that Russia was preventing the United States from making a similar mistake in Syria.

When asked who he would save first if he saw both President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey drowning, he gave a subtle smile and said, “If someone has already decided to drown, it’s impossible to save them.”

He demurred when asked to endorse an American presidential candidate, but in response to a question about the lack of choice in Russian politics, he pointed to the United States to defend his record. Bushes or Clintons had been running America for many years, he said, with another Clinton now running.

“So much for being removable,” he said. “I’m not saying it’s that bad, there are benefits and there are drawbacks.”

On a personal note, Putin was asked when the next Mrs. Putin might be introduced to the public, now that his ex-wife had remarried. He said he and his former wife, Ludmila, were getting along better than ever, but tried to brush off the question with a joke about, well, the economy.

“I’m happy with my life,” he said, while suggesting that saying more might have unpredictable consequences. “I don’t know how that will affect the exchange rate or oil price.”

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