MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s traditional question-and-answer session will be held on June 30, the Kremlin press service said.

"President of Russia Vladimir Putin will hold the annual Direct Line on June 30. The programme will begin at 12 pm Moscow time and will be broadcast live by Channel One, Rossiya 1, Rossiya 24, NTV, Public Television of Russia (OTR), and Mir TV channels and Mayak, Vesti FM and Radio Rossii radio stations," the Kremlin press service said in a statement. "The head of state will answer questions which are of concern for the country’s citizens."

"Anyone can submit their questions via the Moscow-Putin special mobile application, which technologically makes it possible to have an immediate video connection with the studio during the broadcast," the statement says. "Questions will also be received via the show’s website moskva-putinu.ru, text or MMS messages sent to the number 0-40-40 and by phone to 8-800-200-40-40."

Text and video questions to the President can also be submitted through the Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki social networks, which have the official groups of the programme vk.com/moskvaputinu and ok.ru/moskvaputinu.

Questions can be submitted from 12 pm local time on June 20 until the end of the programme on June 30.

The call centre can be reached from anywhere in Russia by dialing 8-800-200-40-40. To call from abroad one should dial +7-499-550-40-40, +7-495-539-40-40.

SMS and MMS messages are accepted on 0-40-40 only if sent through Russian telecom operators. Sending the message is free of charge. Questions should be written in Russian and contain no more than 70 characters.

Sign language interpretation will be available on June 30 on the show’s website and in the broadcast by OTR Russian Public Television.

More information about the Direct Line and ways to get in touch with the call centre, as well the program’s archive for the past years, is available on moskva-putinu.ru.

Putin’s question-and-answer sessions

Putin’s previous event of this format was held in June 2019. It was his 17th Q&A session. The very first ‘Direct Line with Vladimir Putin’ was held in late 2001. Since then, this event has been held annually, except for 2004 and 2012. Last year, the event was not held in its traditional format, but Putin answered several questions from citizens during his annual news conference in December 2020.

The Direct Line of 2013 proved to be the longest one - it continued for 4 hours 47 minutes.

According to statistics, the number of questions submitted to the Russian leader varies between hundreds of thousands (in 2001) to several million. Every time Vladimir Putin manages to answer several dozens of questions. In 2019, the Russian leader spend four hours and eight minutes responding to 81 questions and requests.

Traditionally, in the wake of the program Putin drafts a list of instructions, appointing those responsible for their implementation and setting deadlines.