The final calculation: Russians sent more than 2 million questions to Vladimir Putin

More than 2 million requests were received by the organizers of the program "Results of the year with Vladimir Putin." The combined direct line and the annual big press conference of the president will be held on December 19 at 12:00 and will last several hours. Many questions, as expected, relate to their OWN: assistance to military personnel and their families. However, there are a lot of social appeals: in the regions they complain about problems with water and the closure of perinatal centers. According to experts, we should expect questions about the development of AI, access to foreign services, as well as income growth. Which of the journalists will be at the press conference and what is Putin's record of communication with residents - in the Izvestia article.

How is the preparation for the president's direct line going?

Less than a day remains until one of the most important events of the year — a direct line with the President of Russia, which is usually held at the end of December. Everything is ready for the central event — on December 19, it will once again be released in the format of a program called "Results of the Year with Vladimir Putin." Recently, the direct line has been combined with another equally important event — the big press conference of the head of state. So Vladimir Putin will not only have to sum up the results of the year, but also answer questions from journalists and residents of the country.

The reception of applications from Russians has been active since December 4 and will continue until the end of the program. By the way, it will start as usual — at noon in Gostiny Dvor. The volunteers estimated that citizens sent more than 2 million appeals to the president. There are already top 5 regions: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar Territory, Rostov Region and Sverdlovsk region. Moreover, the most active category of citizens is people over the age of 56, and women are more likely to contact the direct line.

The most popular way to ask a question to the Russian leader remains a phone call, almost 850 thousand people contacted the call center. Direct inclusions from the regions in 2025, as it was before, are not envisaged. Citizens were encouraged to send their video messages. According to the call center, residents of Russia are traditionally interested in a variety of topics: from domestic politics to everyday problems. At the same time, a significant part of the questions concerns the participants of the SVO and their families. Many applications are put into operation immediately, without waiting for the program to be released.

— We received a direct line call from Natalia, a resident of the Moscow region. The citizenship situation with respect to her spouse, a participant in the SVO, has already been resolved, but not yet with respect to her children. Now the appeal will be considered to help the applicant exercise her right to a simplified procedure for obtaining citizenship," Yulia Belekhova, head of the Committee of Families and Soldiers of the Fatherland, told Izvestia.

Yekaterinburg residents complained about the closure of the only perinatal center in the area, and now they have to seek help from dozens of kilometers away. And in the Yaroslavl region, there remains a problem with water quality, which the local authorities "have been letting go for years." "Sediment, sand, just sand. Cattle probably won't drink this kind of water, but we drink it. They turned to everyone," complained local resident Lyubov Ukhtomova.

By the way, this year the appeals are processed by artificial intelligence again — for the first time this innovation was applied in 2024. Back then, Vladimir Putin managed to answer 76 questions in almost 4.5 hours — the development of AI, economic issues, social support for the population and, of course, a special operation were on the agenda. It was one of the longest direct lines, but it did not break the record in 2013. At that time, the president communicated with the population for 4 hours and 47 minutes.

What questions are expected from the media and the public

This year, issues of protecting citizens from fraud, especially in the digital environment, may become new topics for the direct line, political scientists say. A striking example was the "case Valley" — when, on the one hand, there is a need to fine—tune the judicial system, and on the other, additional tools to ensure the rights of bona fide purchasers, said Ruslan Andreev, project manager of the Polylog Group, political consultant.

— The issues of restricting access to foreign services, as well as interruptions in the operation of the mobile Internet, are relevant. People understand that their security and the sovereignty of the country are of paramount importance, but not all services have adequate Russian counterparts. This affects not only everyday habits, but also the ease of communication with loved ones and the quality of working conditions. One of the key issues is also considered to be the use of artificial intelligence, both in the business environment and in solving everyday tasks, as well as in public administration," he added.

It is noteworthy that two or three years ago, the basis of the national public demand was to improve the quality of life: public spaces, roads, ecology, and now we are talking about maintaining living standards - that is, income growth and increased consumption, says political scientist Dmitry Orlov.

Media representatives also prepare their questions: a distinctive feature of Vladimir Putin's big press conference is the participation of journalists from almost all regions of Russia. Media staff from leading publications are coming to Moscow for this day. For most correspondents from the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, this is actually the only opportunity per year to ask the president a question. They are particularly interested in this event: for example, journalists from Yakutia, Bryansk, Tyumen, Penza and Komi have already written reports about their admission to the big press conference: in particular, about the conditions of participation, PCR and badges in the presidential administration.

The topics of journalists' questions, as a rule, cover domestic and foreign policy, the socio-economic situation, current problems of Russian citizens and the work of government authorities. Reporters from unfriendly countries will also attend the "Results of the Year with Vladimir Putin" program, and they will have the opportunity, like other media representatives, to ask the Russian president a question, press secretary Dmitry Peskov said.