Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov told the Rossiya-24 television channel Wednesday that questions submitted by the Russian public ahead of the phone-in mainly relate to the “special military operation” in Ukraine and the “international situation.”
Peskov said many questions refer to “the special military operation in all its aspects,” such as the current situation in the war, Russia’s objectives and the future of servicemen who are returning from the battlefield, news agency Tass reported.
Russians are also asking Putin “whether the Russian economy and social sphere are resilient enough and whether the state will continue to fulfil its social obligations,” the news outlet added.
It’ll be interesting to see how many of these thorny issues are actually posed to Putin in the carefully curated combined phone-in and end-of-year press conference, particularly given reports that the president wanted to avoid focusing on the war ahead of the 2024 election.
Peskov said the president prepares thoroughly for the event, reviewing questions grouped in main thematic blocks. The Kremlin spokesperson said none of the messages will be left unanswered and all problems reported by citizens will be resolved within the next year.
The Kremlin had received a huge amount of support for Putin from Russian citizens ahead of the event, Peskov claimed. It’s been reported that over two million calls and messages have been made by Russian citizens posing questions for the president.
“We had a partial mobilization, we called up 300,000 people… The guys are fighting well, really well,” Putin said.
He claimed 1,500 were volunteering every day across the country and said around 486,000 military personnel had been contracted to fight since the start of this year.
The flow of those who want to defend their homeland with weapons in their hands does not stop,” Putin said.
“So why do we need mobilization? As of today, there is no need for that,” he added, NBC News reported.
Putin also gave a rare insight into the number of Russian military personnel in Ukraine, claiming that 617,000 service members were currently involved in the “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Russia first launched a partial mobilization last year with the move prompting thousands of men of fighting age to leave Russia. Putin said he understood that the topic was a “sensitive matter.”
Putin said at his annual news conference that Ukraine had lost some of its best troops in an attempt to secure a foothold on the east bank of the Dnipro River in the Kherson region.
“I think it is stupid and irresponsible on behalf of the political leadership of the country,” Putin said. “It is a tragedy, I believe, for them.”
As the war approaches the end of its second year, Ukraine has achieved only small gains from a counter-offensive that began in June.
Russia, however, has also made no tangible progress since capturing the city of Bakhmut at heavy cost in May. It occupies about a sixth of Ukraine’s territory but does not fully control any of the four Ukrainian regions it claimed last year as part of Russia.
The International Olympic Committee said last week that Russians and Belarusians who qualify for the Paris Games can take part as neutrals but must compete without their flags, emblems, anthems or any other identifications whatsoever of Russia or Belarus.
Putin said if the idea was to “cut off” Russia’s leading athletes then it’s not worth going to the games.
“What does it have to do with the athletes? Let them travel, and train, and so on,” he said in the combined phone-in and press conference Thursday, in comments reported by Reuters.
It would be difficult to rebuild relations with the U.S. as things stand, Russian President Vladimir Putin said when asked at his annual phone-in and news conference whether a normalization of relations was possible.
“When internal changes happen (in the U.S.), when they start respecting other people, other countries, when they start looking for compromise instead of trying to resolve their issues with sanctions and military intervention, then the fundamental conditions will be in place to restore fully-fledged relations,” Putin told the audience at his public phone-in and press conference Thursday.
“So far, such conditions are not in place, but we are ready for that,” he said, according to a Reuters translation.
“The unbridled desire to creep towards our borders, taking Ukraine into NATO, all this led to this tragedy. Plus the bloody events in Donbass for eight years — all this led to the tragedy that we are now experiencing. They forced us into these actions,” he said.
“What the United States conceived and organized, Europe stands and silently watches, or plays and sings along with them there. Well how can we build relations with them?” Putin asked.
In the final question of a marathon phone-in and press conference, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was asked by a Kommersant journalist what advice or warning he would give to himself in the year 2000, just after he came to power.
In terms of advice, Putin said he would tell his younger self “you’re going on the right path, comrades.”
“You need to believe in the great people of Russia and this faith is key to rebirth and the strengthening of Russia,” he said.
Wrapping up the more than four-hour phone-in and presser, Putin told the audience: “Please don’t be cross with me if I didn’t answer all of your questions, but it’s high time to wrap it up.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin held his annual phone-in with the public on Thursday, combined with his end-of-year press conference, in which he covered a host of issues including what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Putin said Russia’s goals in the country, which he claimed include its “demilitarization” and “neutral status,” had “not changed.”
“Either reach an agreement or resolve it by force. This is what we will strive for,” he said, according to a Reuters translation.
The “Direct Line with Vladimir Putin” is a closely followed event as it gives Russian citizens a chance to speak directly with the president on a range of issues and sees them invariably airing their grievances as well as heaping praise on the president. The event is a carefully orchestrated and curated affair, with questions heavily vetted and any criticisms focusing on localized issues rather than Russia’s leadership.
The phone-in’s organizers said they received several million questions for the president and the televised event lasted over four hours.
All leaders bar Hungary’s Victor Orban — who has retained tacit sympathy for Putin through the war — are set to approve the formal start of talks over Ukraine joining the bloc. However, a decision must be taken unanimously.
Orban told reporters Thursday morning he continued to believe talks should not begin because Ukraine has not met all of the criteria set out by the European Union. Orban is also expected to block the approval of a 50 billion euro ($54 billion) funding package for Ukraine in the EU budget, instead favoring a short-term, smaller package.
The meeting comes at a crunch time for Ukraine, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hops across the world seeking further aid in the fight against Russia’s invasion. He started the week in Argentina, then travelled to the United States and landed in Norway on Wednesday.
Throughout all of his stops, he delivered one message: cutting support to Ukraine is a gift to Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.
Some 50 billion euros ($54.43 billion) are on the table. The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, proposed in June to send this sum to Ukraine between 2024 and 2027, but opposition from Hungary, whose prime minister met with Putin in person in October, is blocking the disbursement.
EU leaders will also discuss whether to start official negotiations with Ukraine for the nation’s potential future accession to the bloc. Hungary has, once again, expressed reservations. A handful of other EU member states, such as Italy, have also raised issues over enlarging the EU.
Speaking to CNBC on Tuesday, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Olga Stefanishyna, said that the start of official negotiations would be a “major guarantee of Ukraine sustainability.”
Ukraine deputy PM: Confident there are enough options to reach an EU aid deal
Nearly two years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, western support for Kyiv is flattening. There was a nearly 90% drop in newly committed aid to Ukraine between August and October, compared with the same period of 2022, data from the Kiel Institute showed last week.
“Ukraine now increasingly relies on a core group of donors such as the U.S., Germany, and the Nordic and Eastern European countries that continue to pledge and deliver both financial aid and important weaponry,” the institute said.
The recent war between Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel has also drifted attention away from Kyiv, while inflationary pressures have limited the ability of Western governments to provide more aid. At the same time, Russia retains an advantage when it comes to military strength.
“Russia will likely continue to have a considerable advantage in terms of the availability of military equipment, munitions, and manpower, at least in the first half of 2024,” Andrius Tursa, Central and Eastern Europe Advisor at consultancy firm Teneo, said.
“Having mobilized its economy for the war, Russia is rapidly increasing its military output, in addition to supplies from North Korea and Iran. Moscow is also keeping up military recruitment to compensate for vast manpower losses without triggering visible public discontent.”
Recent surveys suggest that the majority of the Russian population is still in favor of Putin’s actions in Ukraine, although support is gradually declining. According to a poll carried out by the Levada Center and issued earlier this month, 74% of those surveyed support fully or to some extent the war in Ukraine.
Putin held his annual phone-in with the Russian public, which was combined with his end-of-year news conference. It’s a closely followed event, but also a carefully orchestrated and curated affair, giving Russian citizens a chance to speak directly with the president on a range of issues.
“Mr President, good afternoon, I am a student studying at St Petersburg Institute. Do you have a lot of twins? And another point, what is your attitude towards the dangers with neural networks and artificial intelligence?” the AI questioner asked, according to a live NBC News translation.
“I see you may resemble me and speak with my voice. But I have thought about it and decided that only one person must be like me and speak with my voice, and that will be me,” Putin responded.
The Kremlin recently dismissed long-standing speculation in the press and on social media that Putin uses body doubles at some events. Meanwhile, there is growing concern across the globe about the use of AI deepfakes to spread misinformation.
“Deepfake” is a term used to describe an AI-created image, sound or video of a real person. This tech is being used to spread false information by doctoring images or audio of political figures and celebrities.
Putin, like other world leaders, is attempting to position Russia as a front-runner in AI technology at a time when countries around the globe are vying for a leadership position.
The U.S., China, and European Union are racing to dominate in AI — while also paying attention to the risks surrounding the technology — as it is becoming more and more advanced, with some AI-generated avatars now nearly indistinguishable from humans.
In a surprise announcement late Thursday, EU summit chair Charles Michel, who is the European Council president, said leaders had decided to start accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova.
“The European Council has decided to open accession negotiations with Ukraine & Moldova,” he said via X, formerly Twitter.
″#EUCO granted candidate status to Georgia. And the EU will open negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina once the necessary degree of compliance with the membership criteria is reached and has invited the commission to report by March with a view to taking such a decision,” he added.
The agreement comes despite Hungary pledging to block this decision during the current two-day EU summit. A handful of other member states, such as Italy, have also raised issues over enlarging the EU.
Speaking via X, Zelenskyy replied to Michel saying it was “a victory” for his country and Europe. “A victory that motivates, inspires, and strengthens,” he said, according to a Reuters translation.
Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, meanwhile, called it a bad decision and said via Facebook that his country did not participate in the decision-making process. Orban left the room when the vote among EU leaders started on Thursday evening, according to one EU official.
