MOSCOW, December 8. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin held a total of about 300 international events and 220 telephone conversations in 2022, Kremlin Aide Yury Ushakov told reporters at a briefing on Thursday.

"I will say a few words about our president's international encounters in 2022. We can already draw some preliminary results there. This year we actively used both traditional and new formats of leaders' communication," Ushakov said, specifying that video-conference communication began to be actively used during the pandemic, and remains relevant now, "as it allows us to return to the former intensity of relations and communication of our president." "In total, according to our calculations, about 300 different kinds of international events, that is, events with the direct participation of the president, will take place this year. I still count some events in December," he said.

A Kremlin aide recalled that in February Putin went to China, where he participated in the opening of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, then he visited Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Armenia and now he is heading to Kyrgyzstan. "In total, I would like to stress, both in Russia and abroad, more than 70 meetings with foreign heads of state, heads of government and heads of international organizations were held," he said. Ushakov also noted that such major forums as the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and the Eastern Economic Forum were held in Russia during the year. "The president took part in a number of multilateral events, such as summits of BRICS, SCO, CIS, CICA, CSTO, the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, as well as the Russia-Central Asia format, the Caspian Five, the Astana Troika, and ‘Russia-China-Mongolia'," the Kremlin aide listed.

Speaking about telephone diplomacy, Ushakov stressed that it was quite intense. "At the end of the year, the number of such telephone conversations will be about 220. More than 50 foreign leaders were our president's interlocutors," he concluded.