MOSCOW, December 8. /TASS/. About two million appeals are expected for President Vladimir Putin's annual Direct Line Q&A session , All-Russia People’s Front Executive Committee Head Mikhail Kuznetsov said in an interview with TASS.
The acceptance of appeals began on December 4. According to the latest data, over 400,000 have already been submitted.
"I think [by the end of the appeal collection] it will be around two million. It has never been less than that before. The tools for receiving and processing are constantly being improved. The new Max Messenger is already seeing a large volume of appeals is coming in," said Kuznetsov.
He also commented on whether this figure could exceed last year’s 2.5 million appeals.
"On one hand, we always want more appeals, it shows that there's a lot of interest. But on the other hand, we want fewer, because a large number of appeals means we are not working well enough if people are forced to appeal," he noted.
Questions for the president can be submitted on the program’s website via SMS or MMS, through a special mobile application, or by sending a text or video message on the social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki, or via a chatbot in the Messenger Max.
The combined Direct Line Q&A session and major press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. Moscow time (9:00 a.m. GMT) on December 19.