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Putin held detailed consultations as part of preparations for Q&A session — spokesman

He added that the Russian leader has been studying questions, submitted for the event, for two days

MOSCOW, December 14. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has held detailed consultations with his administration on the eve of his annual televised Direct Line Q&A session which this year will be combined with his year-end press conference, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"Indeed, the president had a fairly detailed discussion with top officials of the [presidential] administration as part of preparations for the press conference and the question-and-answer session yesterday into the night and today," he told Russia’s Channel One late on Wednesday.

"Since there was enough time to combine questions into thematic blocks, the president, naturally, immediately contacted with ministers, heads of governmental agencies and with his economic advisers, and this is how he is preparing [for the event]," Peskov said.

He added that the Russian leader has been studying questions, submitted for the event, for two days.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual televised Direct Line Q&A session, which this year will be combined with his year-end press conference, will take place on Thursday.

The previous time the Q&A session was combined with the press conference was in 2020, as the pandemic disrupted plans to hold the two events separately as usual.

The president’s Direct Line question and answer session was last held in 2021. There have been 18 such standalone events. Since 2001, Putin has taken to live TV 15 times to answer the Russian public’s questions as president and four more as prime minister.

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