MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Nikolai Troitsky) - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin spends more and more time interacting with the Russian people with each passing year. He set a record in 2008 - three hours and eight minutes. On December 3, 2009, he surpassed this record by conversing with people for four hours and two minutes.
Over 2 million questions were sent to the prime minister via telephone, text message and e-mail through the website www.moskva-putinu.ru. Obviously, not even one in a hundred could voice his or her question. Natural selection was necessary.
The organizers of the event are absolutely wrongfully accused of using pre-groomed people to ask the questions. It does not matter whether people off the street would ask an "inappropriate" or "wrong" question. Many years of practice have shown that the prime minister has a repartee for even the most pointed remarks. Unfortunately, most of the citizenry are generally incapable of formulating their own questions. Even with coaching, time and time again people lose their composure, stammer or get their words confused.
At the same time, Putin was asked harsh and hard-hitting questions. He answered these calmly, in a philosophical and pensive manner, even somewhat phlegmatically. He is not given to populism. He did not make any vociferous personal promises such as offering to help fix a roof or lay a gas pipeline to a village. He also did not pledge any extravagant gifts such as an invitation to the Kremlin's Christmas celebrations. He only wished one Tatyana Romanenko a happy birthday at her own request.
Russians have been known to request such trifles. Everyone knows that Russians prefer going straight to the top, over the heads of local government representatives. However, Putin has carefully and even elegantly rerouted such petitions, solicitations and applications back to the regional and municipal level. But more often than not, he did promise to confer with the governors of the region in question, but about the problem in general and not individual cases. He had a "talking-to" with the head of the Irkutsk Region about the low salaries of kindergarten employees, with the governor of Chelyabinsk about hospital closures in Magnitogorsk and with the head of the Leningrad Region about the troubles with social organizations in the town of Pikalevo. In addition, he admonished people that "not all problems can be solved from Moscow" and half-jokingly admitted that he was willing to travel to any region of Russia if it would help resolve a situation.
Putin spoke out on nationwide issues. For example, he let it be known that he is categorically opposed to any excessively radical reform of the police. He brought up the fact that Ukraine dissolved the traffic police and "nothing good came of it." He said that bribes increased and driving conditions worsened.
Incidentally, Putin had previously asked that punishments not be overdone. But in his opinion, some people had received their just deserts. Putin did not avoid a question about Khodorkovsky and instead made a sensational announcement. He was the first to publicly announce that the money from the sale of Yukos assets was used to create the Fund for Reforming Housing and Public Utilities, and added that "already tens of millions of people have benefited by having their houses and apartments renovated and that 150,000 people will be relocated from slums into new buildings." In other words, ill-gotten gains were used to help the poor.
Putin steamrolled over the "richies" in response to a question about the scandalous occurrence in Switzerland in which a Russian citizen crashed a Lamborghini and seriously injured a local pensioner. Putin reminded the audience that there are such phrases as "nouveau riche." And then he came out with another aphorism - "...in Soviet times some tried to show off their wealth. Some people would put golden caps on their teeth, preferably the front teeth, to show their level of their prosperity. Lamborghinis and other expensive bric-a-brac are the same as golden teeth."
Finally, Putin decisively refused to share his plans for the future with the audience. He answered a question from a student about whether he would run for president in 2012 with a question: "How about you?" The young man was at a loss for words and shook his head. Putin would not confirm his candidacy and limited his answer to an indeterminate observation: "I'll think about it, there's still time." He even gave some advice to politicians: "You cannot tie everyday work to election campaign interests, since this binds your hands and feet and renders you incapable of making unpopular decisions.
By the way, in answer to the direct question of possibly quitting politics, Putin answered tersely but eloquently - "Don't hold your breath." Judging by the telecast, nobody is holding their breath.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
