Vladimir Putin has accused his political opponents at home of trying to destabilise Russia on the West’s orders and alleged that the United States killed Libyan dictator Col Muammar Gaddafi.

In a ferocious verbal tirade broadcast on state TV that lasted more than four and a half hours, the Russian prime minister made it clear he was determined to return to the Russian presidency next year, scornfully dismissing recent demonstrations against him.

“I know that students were paid some money – well, that’s good if they could earn something,” he said, referring to the biggest protest of its kind since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union last Saturday.

Facing down the biggest challenge of his almost twelve years in power, the Russian strong man insisted that the disputed parliamentary election which triggered the protests was not flawed, rejecting calls for a re-run outright.

“It properly reflected the real balance of power in the country,” he said during a live televised question and answer session that has become an annual tradition. “As for the fairness or unfairness: the opposition will always say the elections were not fair. Always. This happens everywhere, in all countries.” Repeatedly accusing his domestic critics and opponents of taking money from the West to do him down, he claimed there was a plot to destabilise Russia by effecting a velvet revolution there.

“There is a well-tested scheme to destabilise society,” he said.

Scornfully recalling Ukraine’s pro-Western Orange revolution in 2004, he said that anti-Kremlin opposition figures had advised Ukraine’s orange movement at the time and had now brought the same technology to Russia. “Some of my critics are sincere, they must be heard and respected. The rest are pawns in the hands of foreign agents. There are people with Russian passports but who work in the interests of foreign states.” Unruffled and outwardly supremely confident, he even quipped that the street protests were only possible because he tolerated freedom of expression.

“If it is the result of the Putin regime it pleases me,” he said with a relaxed smile. “I saw on television mostly young, active people clearly expressing their positions. I am pleased to see this. The fact that people are expressing their point of view about the processes occurring in the country, in the economy, in the social sphere, in politics, is an absolutely normal thing, as long as people continue acting within the law.”

But Mr Putin showed no such leniency when it came to the United States.

Last week, he dismissed criticism of the vote by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as part of US efforts to weaken Russia, and on Thursday he upped the ante by accusing US special forces of being involved in the killing of deposed Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

“Who did this?” Putin said. “Drones, including American ones. They attacked his column. Then – through the special forces, who should not have been there – they brought in the so-called opposition and fighters, and killed him without court or investigation.”

A spokesman for the US military said the claim was “ludicrous.” In a related aside, Mr Putin said John McCain, the US senator, was losing his mind, probably because of the torture he suffered as a prisoner during the Vietnam War.

Putin was responding to remarks McCain made in October, when the former US presidential candidate said the killing of Col. Gaddafi should make “dictators” like Putin “nervous.” Signalling that President Barack Obama’s much publicised attempt to “reset” relations with Russia was now barely alive, Mr Putin added: “Sometimes it seems to me that America does not need allies, it needs vassals.

People are tired of the dictates of one country.” The carefully stage-managed performance showcased Putin’s charisma and his natural ability to command attention and was designed to boost his image and show he remained in control of Russia.

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