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Over 1 mln questions submitted for Putin’s Q&A session

The organizers will be collecting questions until the end of the question-and-answer session, which will go on the air at noon Moscow time on June 7

© Alexei Druzhinin/Russian presidential press service/TASS

MOSCOW, June 4. /TASS/. More than one million questions have been submitted for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual televised question-and-answer session as of 18:00 Moscow time on Monday, the organizers of the event said.

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Questions for the program, during which the head of state will answer citizens’ most relevant and interesting queries live, began to come in at 08:00 Moscow time on May 27. The organizers will be collecting questions until the end of the question-and-answer session, which will go on the air at noon Moscow time on June 7.

According to the organizers, 1,006,547 messages have been received as of 18:00 Moscow time on Monday. Most people used phones to submit their questions (583,858 calls), while SMS and MMS channels were used 240,000 and 22,700 times respectively. Besides, 97,800 Russians submitted their questions through the program’s website, while over 62,000 people used special mobile apps and official groups in social networks.

Putin’s first televised Q&A session took place on December 24, 2001. Later on, the sessions became annual, with the exception of 2004 and 2012. During the first Q&A session in 2001, as many as 400,000 questions were sent to the president, and their number was growing every year, having reached 3.25 million in 2015.

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Kiev violates diplomatic relations convention by recruiting mercenaries abroad — diplomat

Maria Zakharova pointed to media reports, according to which Ukrainian embassies in a number of countries are openly campaigning local citizens to join the so-called International Legion of Ukrainian Territorial Defense

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US military advisers, if sent to Ukraine, won’t come close to frontlines — Pentagon

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US nukes in Poland to become target for Russia should confrontation with NATO occur — MFA

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According to the article, the United States "is putting the finishing touches" on one of its largest Ukraine military aid packages to date, which may be announced on Friday

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Ukrainian army strikes own surrendering soldiers — POW

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US incapable of replicating Cold War-era arms race — Valdai club expert

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Putin stays in daily contact with Sergey Shoigu, Kremlin spokesman says

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North Korea tests multiple rocket launchers produced at new defense enterprise

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Alexander Lukashenko stressed that his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky should have realistic expectations

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Ivan Tertel said various methods were being considered, up to "instigating a forceful seizure by illegal armed groups" being trained in the West and Ukraine

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West’s unwillingness to give up hegemony escalates tensions in world — security official

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