Putin To Hold His Annual Q&A With The Russian Public On Thursday

Photo: RIA Novosti

Ukraine And Crimea To Be Main Topics Of Putin's Live Q&A Session -- Voice of Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin will answer the questions of Russian citizens during a live broadcast on Thursday at noon. President’s press service has received some two million questions from Russian citizens. President’s spokesman Dmitriy Peskov thinks that the Crimea, Ukraine and social problems will be the main issues of the broadcast.

This is the 12th live with Russian President. Each year the duration of the broadcast increases. Thus, the year 2013 saw a record as the broadcast lasted for four hours and forty eight minutes. President’s press service couldn’t specify the duration of the upcoming broadcast.

This year, many of those, who managed to contact the press service, stated their support to Putin’s action in the Crimea and in Ukraine, Peskov said. Peskov himself looked through tens of thousands of messages and found that nobody blamed Putin for his actions.

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Update: Crimea, Ukraine to be in focus at Putin’s Q&A session -- ITAR-Tass

My Comment: This is not a "puff" session with the public .... last year's Q&A lasted almost 5 hours, and some of the questions that were asked put Putin on the hot seat. But such is the price that a politician must pay in Russia. With the crisis in Ukraine on the front pages .... I predict that in the first hour this is all that will be discussed. The news conference will start at 12:00 Moscow Time ... or 4:00 AM EST. I am not going to wake up at 4:00 to watch this Q&A. But for my readers who are in different time zones, RT usually covers this live and with translation. The RT website is here.