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Putin's big press conference on results of year kicks off

19 December 2024 13:57 (UTC +04:00)

Russian President Vladimir Putin's big press conference on the results of the year has begun, APA's Moscow correspondent reports.

At the end of each year, the Russian leader traditionally answers questions from local and foreign media representatives regarding his country's domestic and foreign policy.

Like last year, this year's press conference is being held in a joint format with the "Direct Line". The "Direct Line" received about 2 million questions from citizens.

The Russian President will answer questions from ordinary Russians as well as local and foreign journalists within a few hours.

Among the foreign media representatives accredited to Putin's big press conference is APA's Moscow correspondent Farid Akbarov.

Noted that Putin, who has held the positions of President and Prime Minister of Russia since 2001, has held "direct lines" and big press conferences with citizens almost every year.

Putin has answered questions from citizens 18 times live, and from local and foreign media 16 times so far.

Since 2020, it has been decided to combine these two major events of the Russian President. Since the experiment was successful, since 2023, that is, last year, this event has been called "Year-end with Vladimir Putin".

As for the accreditation of the media for the year-end event of the Russian President, the rules for participating in Putin's major press conferences have changed since the pandemic. Thus, before the pandemic, an announcement about the press conference was posted on the Kremlin website, and officially registered local media outlets, including foreign media representatives with accreditation cards from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, could freely apply to participate in the major press conference.

However, after the pandemic, the Kremlin invites only foreign media representatives of its own choosing to Putin's major press conference, and not every foreign media representative with an accreditation card from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs receives an invitation to the press conference.

Speaking of restrictions on the major press conference and the "direct line", it should be noted that after the coronavirus pandemic, only media representatives with negative PCR tests for COVID-19 and influenza are still allowed to attend the event. The day before the event, PCR test reception points are set up in the building of the Russian Presidential Administration. Accredited media representatives come to this point and both collect their event entrance cards and take a PCR test. The event entrance card of a media representative who tests positive is automatically blocked.

Accredited journalists have already received traditional gift sets from the organizers of the meeting in Gostiny Dvor. This time, the organizers presented journalists with a portfolio with the white logo of the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, a calendar, a pen, and an A4 notebook.

According to the organizers, a pen and an A4 notebook are enough to make a poster on the spot to attract the attention of Putin or Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov.

Putin's big press conference is considered a unique opportunity to ask the Russian President questions live. Therefore, hundreds of federal, regional, and foreign media representatives will try to take advantage of this opportunity. Even journalists from countries that are not friendly to Russia... The Kremlin spokesman said that journalists from countries that are not friendly to Russia have also been accredited for today's event, but their number is small.