MOSCOW: The combined Direct Line Q&A session and major press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled for December...
MOSCOW: The combined Direct Line Q&A session and major press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled for December 19, the Kremlin announced.
"On December 19 at 12:00 p.m. Moscow time (9:00 a.m. GMT), the program 'Year-End Recap with Vladimir Putin' will be broadcast. The head of state will summarize the results of the outgoing year live on air and answer questions from reporters and residents of our country," the statement said. "Questions will be accepted from 3:00 p.m. Moscow time on December 4 (12:00 p.m. GMT) until the end of the program on December 19," the Kremlin specified.
Anyone can submit a question via the program's website, by SMS, MMS, or phone. Questions will also be accepted through a dedicated mobile app. Text and video questions for the president can be sent via the social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki.
For the first time, the combined event will be held on a Friday. Most often, both the Direct Line and the annual press conference are scheduled for a Thursday—a total of 28 times, according to TASS calculations. This trend became especially pronounced after 2007. Since then, the Kremlin has deviated from this tradition only twice: with the major press conference in 2016 (December 23, Friday) and with the Direct Line in 2021 (June 30, Wednesday).
Putin has been holding his annual televised Direct Line question-and-answer session with Russian citizens since 2001. In recent years, it has been combined with his year-end press conference with Russian and international journalists. The combined event was dubbed the "Year-End Recap with Vladimir Putin," a name used since 2023.
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