MOSCOW, March 20. /TASS/. A TASS film based on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s interview will include several interesting episodes that haven’t been released yet, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. He added that he expected the movie to be released in the near future though it would depend on the news flow.
According to Peskov, it was TASS that made the decision to stop releasing separate episodes of the interview and make a full-scale film instead, and informed the Kremlin about the change of plans. "We supported the move," he stated. "Clearly, both the Russian and global agenda is currently focused on other issues," the Kremlin spokesman explained. "Perhaps, we need to wait a little bit until the agenda is more diverse, [until] the situation calms down and conditions emerge for the audience to carefully listen to what the president has to say on a wide range of topics," he elaborated.
"TASS will make a video compilation of all of the interview’s episodes," Peskov noted, adding: "It will also contain those episodes that haven’t been released yet." "There is a number of very interesting episodes left," the presidential spokesman emphasized. "They [TASS] plan to show it once things calm down a bit," he noted. "We hope that it will be soon," Peskov said.
'20 Questions with Vladimir Putin'
TASS announced earlier on Thursday that the remaining episodes of its project dubbed "20 Questions with Vladimir Putin," which had premiered on February 20 and had since been uploaded to TASS’ resources, would be included in the anticipated full-scale film. The rest of the interview that the head of state granted to TASS journalist Andrei Vandenko will not be released episode by episode. The next one was scheduled for Monday, March 23.
Apart from the excerpts of the previously released broadcasts, the film will also contain the president’s answers that Internet viewers haven’t heard yet, which particularly concern freedom of speech and the role of journalists in today’s society, as well as his family, personal losses and his ways to relax and unwind.
TASS chose to make these changes in light of some of the radical transformations the world is now seeing, which run counter to the original concept of the project — an attempt to look back at the changes that the nation has undergone over the past two decades rather than at the day-to-day news flow. The project was drawing to a close when "a perfect storm" hit the global media space. So now, the novel coronavirus and the current economic turbulence are topping the headlines. The film will shed light on how the project was created and will also contain some scenes that did not make it into any of the episodes. The movie is set to be released in the spring, and the date will be announced later.
The project "20 Questions with Vladimir Putin," launched on February 20 is based on an exclusive three-hour-long video interview with the Russian president, timed for his 20th anniversary at the helm of power (Putin first won a Russian presidential election on March 26, 2000). The project specifically targets Internet users. Each of its episodes contains explanatory graphics, facts and quotes.