MOSCOW, December 12. /TASS/. More than 1.5 mln calls and messages from Russian residents have already been received by the call center of the All-Russia People’s Front on the eve of Russian President Vladimir Putin's annual televised Direct Line question-and-answer session which this year will be combined with his year-end press conference.

According to the Rossiya-24 TV channel, as of now, Russians have contacted the call center over 950,000 times and a total of more than 400,000 text messages have been received. About 30,000 messages have been sent via a mobile app and almost 100,000 letters have been submitted on the Direct Line’s website. Additionally, the call center received almost 70,000 questions from the Russian citizenry via social networks.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the president will sum up the year’s results on December 14. The two-in-one press conference/direct line format was also used in 2020 when the pandemic interfered with holding these events separately.

The Direct Line with the president was last held in 2021. It has taken place a total of 18 times (as a separate event). Since 2001, Putin has interacted with Russians 15 times on air as president and four times as prime minister.