Putin’s tenth news conference to be held against unprecedented background

MOSCOW, December 18. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a major news conference at noon Moscow Time on Thursday without time limits or restrictions of topics. The tenth annual major news conference arouses extremely high expectations as it is to take place against the unprecedented background of spiraling financial and economic problems merged with worsening international ones. The presidential press secretary, Dmitry Peskov told TASS that “there is no time limit for the news conference,” which meant that Putin would answer the questions as long as he thought proper. But “no-one is going to break records,” Peskov said. In 2008 the news conference was the longest - four hours and 40 minutes - while in 2013 just half an hour shorter. Peskov said that the procedure of Putin’s news conference had not changed. “The press secretary moderates a news conference but at some moment the president makes a decision to do it himself and picks up the interviewers,” Peskov said adding that he did not know when this moment would come. All 1,259 accredited journalists have a right to ask the president a question, he said. “There have been no restrictions of accreditation,” he said. “On the contrary, we have reporters who have come from abroad and the Foreign Ministry issued visas for them.” On Wednesday, Peskov said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television that he was hopeful to see reporters from Ukraine, who were working in Moscow and had accreditations. According to the lists posted on the Kremlin official website, reporters from Japan, the United States, Iran, Germany, France, Romania, Belarus, Sweden, Israel, China, Denmark, Spain, Abkhazia, Poland, Azerbaijan, Vietnam and the United Kingdom will attend Putin’s news conference. Reporters working for Crimea’s television broadcasting companies and outlets will join Russian media this time. “A news conference is a place where the president can be asked any questions, even very challenging ones,” he said. “But we have always known that the president will give patient, detailed replies to all the questions, adding his explanations, etc.” Along with this, Peskov said that main topics would be economic situation in the country and in the world. Kremlin anticipates discussion “about the economy, the rouble, prices and the steps the Russian government is going to take.” So preparing for the news conference, Putin holds consultations with experts, cabinet members and heads of the Central Bank. Peskov said that international agenda would be also in the focus of attention. “This year has been unusual from the point of view of a paradigm change in the system of international relationship and so certainly, it would produce interest and we expect these questions,” he said. The Kremlin press service also said that Putin’s news conference would be held at the Moscow City International Business Centre, with synchronized translation into English, French and German. Russian television channels Rossiya 1, Rossiya 24 and Channel One are to broadcast Putin’s conference live, along with radio stations Mayak, Vesti-FM and Radio Rossii. Read more