MOSCOW, November 21. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual news conference is due on December 14, 2017, the Kremlin press service said in a statement on Tuesday. It will be the last news conference Putin will address during his current presidential term, and the thirteenth overall annual news conference.

"The Presidential Press and Information Office’s Department of Accreditation and Briefings is now taking accreditation requests to cover the news conference," the statement reads.

According to the statement, "accreditation form can be filled out either in Russian or in English. An accreditation request will not automatically guarantee accreditation."

Accreditation requests will be accepted from Russian journalists registered with the national media watchdog Roskomnadzor and foreign reporters accredited by Russia’s Foreign Ministry.

"Accreditation requests shall be accepted from 3:00 pm (Moscow time) on November 21 until 5:00 pm (Moscow time) on December 1, 2017," the statement adds.

Putin has been holding annual news conferences since 2001. However, no such events took place while he served as Russia’s prime minister, from May 2008 to May 2012. After being re-elected as president for a six-year term in 2012, Putin resumed the tradition of addressing major annual news conferences.

Putin’s first seven annual news conferences took place in the Kremlin’s14th building. After the building was closed for a renovation, the event moved to the International Trade Center.

The shortest of these news conferences lasted for one hour and 33 minutes back in 2001. The 2008 news conference set the record as being the longest one, lasting for four hours and 40 minutes.

In the recent years, Putin’s major meetings with journalists have taken place in December, summing up the year’s events. The president puts no limitations on the areas of questions and sets no time limits. At the same time, he tends to choose questions by the Russian media outlets, particularly regional ones.