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Putin resumes big press conference after 4-year-long break

Journalists will arrive at the International Trade Centre by special buses from the nearest metro station

MOSCOW, December 20 (Itar-Tass) — After the four-year-long break President Vladimir Putin resumes big press conferences. In the afternoon the Russian president will accept 1,226 journalists at the International Trade Centre, Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment, in order to answer the questions.

“We can confirm that the head of state will meet journalists head-on. Despite the fact that on Wednesday Vladimir Putin took part in three summits, he did not forget to prepare for the big press conference,” presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding, “The head of state should study the large amount of information on all fields – economy, social welfare, the humanitarian and cultural spheres.” He should study fresh information and the figures what myriads he had in his head, Peskov said.

In his view, “This is the titanic work.”

The spokesman stressed that the list of questions had not been coordinated ahead of time although the key questions could be predicted.

Earlier, commenting on if Putin is going to beat the record in his meetings with journalists, Peskov said, “No time restrictions have not been planned. Putin will reply as long as he believes it possible. Otherwise, the federal television channels gave three hours for the big press conference. This is 1.5 times less than in the previous four years.”

The spokesman said the procedure would be the same: “journalists, who represent Moscow, regional, foreign and international mass media, are invited to take part in the press conference”. Three week before a total of 1,040 Russian journalists and 186 foreign reporters were accredited. The list of journalists was made public at the Kremlin website. It proves that different mass media show interest in Putin’s press conference.

Journalists will arrive at the International Trade Centre by special buses from the nearest metro station.

This will be Putin’s eighth big press conference. The latest one, which was held on February 14, 2008, was “the biggest press conference”. Every year Putin increased the time: in 2001 the president answered 22 questions for an hour and half and in 2008 he beat the record: his meeting with journalists took 4 hours 40 minutes when reports asked 78 questions.

Earlier, Putin said the big press conference “is a good tradition because I can answer the key questions related to internal and international policy”. When he became prime minister in 2008 Putin gave up big press conference. However, eight months after his third inauguration he will resume this format.

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