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Putin to hold his 11th question-and-answer session with journalists

17 December 2015 01:29 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday will gather journalists for his eleventh annual question-and-answer session at Moscow’s World Trade Center, APA reports quoting TASS.

Participants

This year, as many as 1,390 journalists have been accredited for the news conference, a record-breaking number. Thus, Putin’s first such news conference in 2001 drew 500 journalists. More than 700 journalists were accredited in 2002 and in 2003, about 750 - in 2004, 1,132 - in 2007, 1,364 - in 2008, 1,327 - in 2013, and 1,259 - in 2014.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday several reporters had not been accredited to cover Putin’s news conference due to a technical fault.

"As many as 1,392 reporters have received accreditation although some have failed to be accredited. However, absolutely all the outlets (have been accredited)," Peskov said refusing to name the persons as it would be incorrect

The list of accredited journalists posted on the Kremlin website features among others Ksenia Sobchak of the Dozhd television channel, who plunged into a dispute with Putin at his last year’s news conference, and Moria Solovyenko of the Far East’s Norodnoye Veche, who is notorious for her unceremoniousness in speaking with the president.

The list however lacks the name of Andrei Tumanov, the editor-in-chief of the Vashi 6 Sotok newspaper who enjoyed the right of asking the first question at a number of previous such news conferences.