MOSCOW, March 5. /TASS/. The number of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s in-person meetings will gradually increase, but they will take place in compliance with all pandemic-related security measures, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists Friday.

"The number of such events will continue to increase, but gradually, with consideration of the epidemiological situation, and, of course, in strict compliance with all preventive epidemiological measures," the spokesman said.

He pointed out that "the number of such events with direct in-person contacts has already increased last month," with one of them taking place Thursday, when Putin met with the "Us Together" nationwide aid movement participants in Kremlin.

During this conversation, the president disclosed how he met with a foreign acquaintance of his, who was surprised by busy Moscow, in comparison to other "locked down" European citizens.

"Since I do not know who that was - it is out of my competence, it was the president’s personal meeting - I do not know what preventive epidemiological measures took place," the spokesman said.

"This meeting that the president mentioned, as well as others, falls into personal contacts category, which are a plenty, of course. There are also working contacts that we do not announce. It is a perfectly normal practice," Peskov explained, adding that "every day of the president is filled to the brim with a huge number of meetings and events."