It was all broadcast live on Russian state television, and subsequently went viral on YouTube and the Russian social media. There is no credible rival to Putin on the scene, but neither is it certain any more that he will serve out the full six years of his new presidential term. He is wearing out his welcome.
He really was welcome when the first post-Soviet President, Boris Yeltsin, handed the presidency to him in 1999. Yeltsin's drunken and corrupt conduct of state affairs had discredited "democracy" in the eyes of most Russians, and Putin presented himself as the new broom who would sweep all that away.
He wasn't exactly that: the price he paid for being named interim President when Yeltsin finally quit was to let him and his cronies walk away untouched with their stolen wealth. But as Russians got to know him, they mostly liked what they saw.
During Putin's two terms as President in 2000-2008, he stabilised the ravaged economy: average salaries increased fivefold and GDP grew by almost 8 per cent a year. High oil prices helped, but it was an impressive performance nonetheless, and when he left the presidency three years ago he could still do no wrong in the eyes of most Russians.
He left it because Russia's constitution forbids a third consecutive term as President. But he didn't really leave power. His close ally Dmitry Medvedev was elected to the presidency, and then Medvedev appointed Putin Prime Minister.
In practice, Putin went on taking the big decisions himself, including the decision to return as President next year. But the past four years have not been as kind to Putin as the first eight.
The economy has stagnated, and the scale of the corruption has grown too large to ignore. So when he announced in September that he would run for the presidency in March, something seems to have snapped.
There were two straws that broke the camel's back. One was his and Medvedev's public admission they had agreed on the swap long ago. Everybody kind of knew that, but it was still galling to have Putin's total ownership of the state apparatus rubbed in their faces. The other was that while Putin was Prime Minister, he amended the constitution so that the presidential term is now not four but six years.
In the past couple of months, Russians have suddenly woken up to the reality that they may face another 12 years of him as the all-powerful President (he's only 59 now), and a lot of them have realised that they don't like that prospect. Hence the steep fall in United Russia's share of the vote on Sunday and, probably, in Putin's share of the presidential vote next March.
He'll still win but it may be a long and miserable six years for him unless the oil price goes through the roof and Russia experiences another economic boom. So where does Russia go from here?
Despite the chronic abuses of power, the perversion of the courts, and the intimidation of the media, Russia could re-emerge as a real democracy quite smoothly if Putin ever decided to let it.
Could he lead Russia through such a transition? It is not to be excluded, for Putin is acutely conscious of his place in history and would not want to end up being rejected at the polls or, even worse, being forced to yield power by a popular revolt.
Better to hand the country over in good condition and retire gracefully in four or five years' time. He is egotistical and arrogant, like most powerful people, but he is not a thug.
Gwynne Dyer is a London-based independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries.
