Putin will not hold his ritual end-of-year press conference

The Kremlin has indicated that the Russian president will not lend himself to the exercise of the press conference this year, a custom that has been in place since 2001.

SourceAFP

Lhe great end-of-year face-to-face with the Russian president still attracts hundreds of Russian and foreign journalists. But not this year. “By the start of the new year, there will be no” presidential press conference, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a telephone briefing. He pointed out that Vladimir Putin spoke to the press on other occasions, particularly during his trips abroad. In a context of military setbacks in Ukraine and international sanctions against his country, the Russian head of state will therefore save this traditional end-of-year event.

This meeting with the press had however been organized every year since 2001, with the exception of the period between 2008 and 2012, when he held the post of Prime Minister. The press conference usually lasts for several hours, with the Russian leader answering questions live on all sorts of topics, from diplomacy to everyday Russian issues. The president’s responses to the media often amounted to orders given to the government or regional authorities.