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More than a million questions flood in for Vladimir Putin's Q&A session

The program was launched on December 24, 2001, and has been held annually since then, except in 2004 and in 2012

MOSCOW, June 5. /TASS/. More than 1,080,000 questions were sent in for the Direct Line with Vladimir Putin, his annual Q&A session. The event’s organizers divulged this information as of 09:00 Moscow time on Tuesday.

The intake of questions for the program, during which the head of state will answer the most relevant and interesting questions from Russians on-air, was launched on May 27, at 08:00 Moscow time and will continue until the end of the Direct Line, that will be broadcasted live on June 7 at noon Moscow time.

According to organizers, 1,081,814 questions were received by 09:00 Moscow time on Tuesday. The highest number of applicants used the telephone (623,447), and some used SMS (almost 260,000) and MMS (almost 25,000). As many as 107,300 people posted their questions on the special website for the program. More than 68,000 people used special apps and official groups on social media to ask Putin questions.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier said in an interview with Channel One that questions that citizens send in for the Direct Line are transferred to relevant ministries and regional heads, and "the most shocking situations are dealt with immediately" with direct participation of the Kremlin.

The Direct Line with Vladimir Putin is a televised program during which the head of state answers questions asked by Russian citizens and citizens of other countries live. The program was launched on December 24, 2001, and has been held annually since then, except in 2004 and in 2012.

About 400,000 questions were received for the president by the start of the program in 2001. Their number has been growing ever since then, having reached a record of 3.25 million requests in 2015.