That was Mr. Putin's first TV live cast abroad, though he has had several such sessions at home. The arrangement started as a long interview with the Krasnodar Territory's media outlets, September 2002, to be re-enacted in many other parts of Russia.
On a custom of three years' standing, the President answers questions from the public every December. Last year's linkup took close on three hours. The President answered 69 questions, 18 of which he had chosen himself. The preceding live cast, of 2002, had 51 questions, and took two hours and 38 minutes. A maiden cast, of December 2001, took two hours and a half.
In March 2000, the President appeared on a Lunch with Frost, the BBC's foremost information and analytical programme. Larry King, prominent CNN anchor, interviewed him in September the same year. The cast was recorded while Mr. Putin was in New York City for the millennial summit.
Russia's RTR and the German ZDF together interviewed Vladimir Putin and Gerhard Schroeder, Germany's Federal Chancellor, in St. Petersburg, April 2001.
