Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold his annual year-end press conference and televised call-in show on Thursday.
The question-and-answer session for journalists will be combined with the television program ‘Results of the Year’, where citizens can ask their own questions to the president.
The two formats were first merged in 2020 and finally in 2023, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov citing the president’s lack of time as justification for the move.
Putin canceled the event altogether in 2022, the first year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The hour-long TV event starts at 12:00 (09:00 GMT).
State news agency TASS reported that more than 1 million questions have already been submitted to the president – down from last year’s total of 1.5 million.
Most questions revolve around the “special military operation,” as Moscow officially calls the invasion, and health care, Peskov said.
Poverty, social hardship and complaints about healthcare and the lack of infrastructure are recurring topics of the question-and-answer sessions, in which Putin tries to present himself as a problem solver.
