MOSCOW - If there was any doubt about who is in charge in Russia, a television phone-in laid them to rest: the Vladimir Putin show is alive and well.

The prime minister, addressed by one young caller as "Uncle Volodya," showed in a stage-managed question-and-answer session lasting three hours on Thursday that he remains the country's dominant political force, telling Russians he was there for them in troubled times.

As Putin's protege President Dmitry Medvedev headed to India on an official visit, Putin took the stage at a conference hall near the Kremlin in a populist format designed to connect with television viewers -- a format Medvedev has so far shied away from.

Putin promised the country would get through current economic difficulties and took questions on everything from relations with the United States to agricultural tariffs and his love of traditional Russian steam baths.

"There can be no doubt about who is in charge," said Chris Weafer, chief strategist at Moscow-based investment bank Uralsib, saying Putin delivered what looked like a second state-of-the-nation speech weeks after Medvedev's own one.

Medvedev's speech in November only fuelled speculation about a possible come-back by Putin to the presidency, as he outlined constitutional changes lengthening presidential terms -- changes subsequently rushed through parliament.

Some 1.5 million calls were made to the Putin call centre and 600,000 text messages were received, according to the mainly state-controlled media.

Highlighting his popular touch, Putin invited one family in Siberia to come to Moscow for New Year celebrations, promised another man help erecting a tomb stone for his father and said he would look into the absence of a knitting circle for children in one town.

In the absence of the kind of ties that bind society together in more democratic countries, Russians "live with the feeling they have nobody else to turn to," said Maria Lipman, a political analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Centre, a research institution.

"Of course, people see him as the man who can solve their problems and make their dreams come true," she said.

Friday's newspapers said Putin's performance was just like old times, with the Vedomosti daily headlining its story "In His Former Role" and Gazeta describing Putin's reassuring tone in an article headlined "The Lifeline."

For now, on the international stage Putin's preferred role seems to be one of a backseat driver.

In Russia's war with Georgia in August he did not take the lead role in publicly declaring the start or end of hostilities, although subsequent reports showed he was at the heart of the decision-making.

But as he laps up plaudits in the technocratic role of prime minister, many of the policy directions he set as president are proving resilient.

Western threats to isolate Russia as punishment for the Georgia war have borne limited fruit, as Putin himself promised, while the tide of NATO enlargement appears to have been turned back for now.

Russian officials were jubilant this week as NATO foreign ministers declined to offer formal candidacy to ex-Soviet neighbours Georgia and Ukraine.

Putin was even able to observe that the incoming Barack Obama administration in the United States might be thinking twice on missile defence, an area where the outgoing administration's plans have drawn vehement Russian criticism.

So has Putin won? Yevgeny Volk, head of the Washington-based Heritage Foundation's Moscow office, was sceptical, describing Thursday's performance as a "tactical win" in terms of Putin's international goals, saying Russia had not necessarily won its battle of wills with the West.

Lipman of the Carnegie Centre said Putin had advanced his own political goals and was positioning himself for a presidential come-back, possibly in 2012.

"I think he achieved what he wanted," she said.