"Direct line with Vladimir Putin" in the traditional format will not take place this year, its elements are planned to be added to the large press conference of the President of the Russian Federation in December 2020, the press secretary of the head of state Dmitry Peskov said.
He noted that due to the conditions that have developed this year, "the President has been conducting a direct line for the past few months." "So, of course, it would be superfluous to hold a direct line this year in its traditional format," Peskov said.
"Therefore, we will certainly try to add some elements of a direct line, elements that will allow the President to get feedback from citizens from different regions, to Putin's annual press conference in December," the press secretary of the head of state said.
The formats of the presidential communication
The last time Putin spoke with Russians in a direct line format was in June last year. It was already the 17th in a row: for the first time such a program aired in 2001, since then the direct line has been held annually, except in 2004 and 2012. The first five straight lines lasted less than three hours each, but since 2007 the program has always gone beyond that. The longest was the direct line in 2013 - 4 hours and 47 minutes.
The annual press conference is another major annual event that Putin has held since 2001. The break was made only for the period when he served as Prime Minister - from May 2008 to May 2012, and after returning to the presidency, Putin resumed the practice of holding such meetings with media. The previous major press conference of the President of the Russian Federation was held on December 19, 2019.
Since the end of March this year, in connection with the coronavirus epidemic, the President of the Russian Federation has been holding most events via videoconference in the Novo-Ogarevo residence near Moscow and in the Kremlin. However, some meetings with the head of state are also held in person. In addition, amid the improvement of the epidemiological situation in recent months, a number of working trips of the President outside the Moscow region took place.
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Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS