MOSCOW, June 14. /TASS/. Preliminary organizational meetings are held with the participants in the Russian President Vladimir Putin’s televised question-and-answer session, but these are not a rehearsal to prepare participants for the conversation with the head of state, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.
He thus commented on the RBC report, which asserted that the organizers had assembled the event’s guests at the Petrovo-Dalneye recreational compound in Moscow region to instruct them on how they should act during the live broadcast.
"The organizers do meet with the guests, and these are both civil activists and everyday heroes of TV reports who demonstrated their civic stances. Meetings with them are indeed held regularly before the (question-and-answer session) goes on the air. They are informed on how the event will be held, at what time and where they should come to. These are the usual logistics and organizational issues. It’s perhaps erroneous to call all that a rehearsal, as a rehearsal is totally impossible here," Peskov said, adding that the course of the program depends only on the president and the TV hosts.