Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, on Thursday hit back at accusations that the country was using energy as a weapon, saying critics were deliberately distorting its policy of moving to market prices for oil and gas supplies to former Soviet neighbours.

In a three-and-a-half hour annual press conference – much of it on live television – Mr Putin insisted Russia had helped safeguard the sovereignty of newly-independent states after the collapse of the Soviet Union. But he said subsidies could not go on for ever.