Vladimir Putin will hold a direct line combined with a big press conference
Today the President will once again address the Russians and answer questions from the media. This year the big press conference and direct line of the head of state decided to combine.
The direct line and the annual press conference are long-standing and tested formats of public communication of the Russian president. Each event has been held nearly two dozen times. The first direct line was held in 2001, and a major press conference was held the same year. Then there was a break when Putin was Prime Minister. But he did not give up direct lines even then.
In 2022, there was neither a direct line nor a press conference.
Now, in an election year, they have combined them. That is, during the day there will be questions from both ordinary Russians and accredited representatives of domestic and foreign media. In 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, they did this before.
“This is always a very lengthy and informative event of a special nature,” said presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov. More than 1.5 million questions were received. One of the calls lasted an hour and a half. “This is an excellent sociological cross-section for analysing what problems are most acutely perceived by citizens,” the Kremlin speaker added.
Representatives of both Russian and foreign media have been accredited. Despite Western statements about Russia’s “isolation,” the country’s authorities remain open to dialogue with foreign media, which was repeatedly confirmed by Putin’s public speeches in the past year. The day before, accredited journalists were given commemorative souvenirs.
Observers expected that the main event of the combined direct line and press conference would be the president’s official announcement about his participation in the March elections. All the more so because Peskov, speaking about the incoming questions, noted: “Many people are calling on Putin to run for office and continue his work as head of state”.
However, the president had done so a week earlier.
“There were different thoughts at different times. <…> But I understand: today it is impossible to do otherwise. So I will run,” he said on 8 December, responding to a relevant question from DPR Hero Artem Zhoga.
This immediately stirred up the Western media. Obviously, they are also expecting some signals from the press conference. As practice shows, the Russian President has enough time to deal with all topical issues.
1,482 total views, 2 views today
