Putin's direct line will be held on December 19

Russian President Vladimir Putin 's direct line and big press conference will be held in a combined format on December 19. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on December 6.

"It (the direct line. - Ed.) will indeed take place on December 19. <...> It will be a combined format," Peskov said.

He said that this year's events will again be held under the title "The results of the year with Vladimir Putin." On the night of Sunday, December 8, will begin collecting questions from citizens, which will be answered by the head of state. They will be sent by phone, SMS, social networks and website.

An artificial intelligence (AI) system will be used to process the questions. It will help the president to get an overview of all the questions received. This AI system has been tested on data sets of previous years, and it has shown its effectiveness, the presidential spokesman added.

In addition, the organizers of the direct line have taken into account sensitive questions about the personal data of citizens asking, all this information will be coded.

The press secretary of the Russian president added that foreign journalists accredited in the Russian Federation and representatives of several Western media were invited to the press conference of the head of state. At the same time, American journalist Tucker Carlson, who interviewed Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, will not attend the press conference.

Earlier, on November 20, Peskov announced the beginning of preparations for Putin's direct line. The Kremlin spokesman added that the Kremlin respects the media from unfriendly countries that work in Russia and helps them stick to balanced assessments.

The previous direct line with the Russian leader was held on December 14, 2023. In total, the president received more than 2 million questions from citizens. During the event, the Russian leader answered questions about Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, new regions of the Russian Federation, the growth of real wages, pensions, life expectancy, health care, the development of artificial intelligence, and also touched on a number of other topics.