Putin holds annual press conference and televised call-in show

Russian President Vladimir Putin is to hold his annual end-of-year press conference and televised call-in show on Thursday.

The question-and-answer session for journalists is combined with the television programme “Results of the Year,” where citizens can put their own questions to the president.

The two formats were merged for the first time in 2020 and definitively in 2023, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov citing the president’s lack of time as justification for the move.

Putin cancelled the event altogether in 2022, the first year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The hours-long TV event is scheduled to begin at 12 pm (0900 GMT).

The state news agency TASS reported that more than 1 million questions have already been submitted to the president – not yet reaching last year’s total of 1.5 million.

Most of the questions revolve around the “special military operation,” as Moscow officially calls its invasion, and health care, Peskov said.

Poverty, social hardship, and complaints about health care 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.