On December 19, this Thursday, at 09:00 am GMT, Russian President Vladimir Putin will present a year-end summary during a combined Q&A session and press conference.
In the lead-up to this event, citizens from various Russian regions will have the opportunity to submit their questions and appeals to the president. Putin is also expected to provide detailed responses to inquiries from both Russian and international journalists.
In 2024, the direct line will for the first time use Russia's Sberbank's GigaChat artificial intelligence technology to process questions. The Kremlin emphasized that by the start of the event, Vladimir Putin will be informed of all questions received.
The record for the program's duration was set in 2013, when Putin answered questions for four hours and 47 minutes. At the same time, the largest number of questions was asked by Russians in 2015—3.25 million inquiries.
In 2023, the president's press conference was held on December 14 of that year, and lasted four hours, during which Putin answered a total of 67 questions. Of these, 26 were posed by citizens, while 33 were asked by members of the media, among them, journalists from Turkey, China, the United States, France, and Republika Srpska.