MOSCOW, February 11. /TASS/. The videoconference held by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 10 with editors-in-chief and heads of leading Russian media outlets is not linked to recent protests in the country, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday.
"There is no link here with the unauthorized rallies," he said. "This meeting has not been held for a year. Last year, it was cancelled, therefore, we were long looking for a convenient moment to organize the meeting, albeit in this non-traditional format of a videoconference."
The spokesman underlined that the "abundance of events last year and rapid developments this year" had become a good background for the meeting with heads of media outlets.
Speaking about the fact that these events were partially open in previous years, Peskov stressed that there had never been a tradition to record such conversations completely. "There was a closed part anyway. In the past few years, they were held behind closed doors to let everyone speak their mind calmly and calmly discuss the most pressing issues," he explained, adding that the journalists were not asking Putin to review their work but were interested in other issues.