MOSCOW, February 10. /TASS/. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has confirmed that Vladimir Putin will hold the traditional question-and-answer session this year. According to the Kremlin spokesman, this time there will be new anchorpersons and other novelties, but "the essence of the event will remain unchanged."
"The question-and-answer session is indeed being prepared, we will traditionally announce the exact date later, the questions will traditionally be collected within a week," Peskov told reporters. According to him, "different formats will be used for collecting information, but ICQ will not be used." "This incorrect information was published in a Russian newspaper," the Kremlin spokesman said.
Peskov added that "there were some novelties at the 2016 question-and-answer session - there will be new anchorpersons." He declined though to name them.
"Anyway, the work (to get ready for the question-and-answer show) is in progress, the essence of the event remains unchanged. The president completely immerses himself in the problems of citizens, not only through statistical compilations, not through reports by government agencies, but directly in requests, complaints and letters of these citizens, thousands upon thousands of them," Peskov said. According to him, Putin "thus gets the full picture on the state of affairs in various regions."