Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will hold his tenth annual televised Q&A session on December 15.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin would field questions on all current issues. He denied that the questions to be called in by the public were to be agreed in advance.
“For the past 10 years we have been hearing that the questions were prepared beforehand and for all those 10 years the televised show has proved these words false. And today the questions are not prepared beforehand either. This is a real live show, real questions,” Peskov said.
However, he admitted that some materials are prepared beforehand. “We do try to forecast topics of interest,” the spokesman said.
Questions are accepted in the form of calls and text messages to the call center, and via the program’s website. The most interesting and important questions will be asked to the premier during the call-in.
“He [Putin] never overlooks questions of pressing interest,” he said.
Peskov said the call center, which started operating on Tuesday, has been receiving up to 600 calls a minute.