How the president's direct line changed the lives of Russians. Details

Russian President Vladimir Putin first answered Russians' questions in the format of a direct line in 2001. Since then, such live press conferences have become an annual event, with breaks only in 2004, 2012, 2020, and 2022. Participation in the direct line not only changed the lives of those who addressed a question to the President, but also led to systemic changes in various areas of the economy. Read more in Izvestia's article

Health care in the regions

Daria Starikova from Apatity, Murmansk region, told the President about problems in health care. Due to the fact that the local hospital was closed, merged with a clinic in neighboring Kirovsk, 20 km from the city, people no longer receive timely medical care. In addition, the medical institution lacked narrow specialists, which is why Darya herself was treated for a long time for osteochondrosis and only later diagnosed with stage IV cancer. After the direct line, the hospital in Apatity was renovated and opened a chemotherapy department.

Starikova was treated in Moscow at the P.A. Herzen Research Institute of the Russian Ministry of Health, but they managed to extend her life by only a year. In 2018, the Russian government began developing national projects, including the national project "Health Care", whose tasks included providing medical organizations with qualified personnel and opening medical facilities to ensure accessibility of medical care.

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A year after Darya Starikova's appeal, residents of the town of Strunino in the Vladimir region told the direct line about the inaccessibility of medical care. The city hospital closed several departments at once. The merger of the institution with the hospital in Alexandrov led to a shortage of beds for patients. Vladimir Putin said that it is unacceptable to destroy the primary link of health care. In December 2018, the treatment buildings, children's and adult polyclinics and auxiliary buildings were renovated in Strunino, and in 2022 the construction of a new polyclinic began here.

In 2021, the direct line voiced a proposal to include a Braille display, which allows the blind to work at a computer, in the list of technical rehabilitation devices. 13-year-old Malika Alieva from Maykop, Republic of Adygea, who lost her sight at the age of six, told the President that she managed to get the device thanks to the help of volunteers, but other blind children also need such technical means. Since 2022, the Braille display has been included in the list of rehabilitation devices that the state provides free of charge.

The problem of deceived shareholders

A resident of Solnechnogorsk in the Moscow region in 2017 achieved criminal prosecution for an unscrupulous developer. She told the President that the company "Sabidom" collected more than 4 billion rubles from 319 shareholders for the construction of cottage settlements, but never completed the work. After the direct line, the investigation of the criminal fraud case was put under the control of the Moscow Region prosecutor. In December, six defendants were indicted, and three more were put on the international wanted list. Even earlier, in July 2017, a new federal law protecting the rights of shareholders in the bankruptcy of a developer came into force.

In December 2023, the direct line again received an appeal from defrauded shareholders, this time from Samara. Participants of shared construction of the residential complex "Novaya Zarya" asked for the President's help in a situation that could not be solved. The houses could not be completed for 25 years, and due to the fact that the developers were constantly changing, there were discrepancies in the lists of buyers and not all defrauded shareholders were able to receive compensation. After the appeal of citizens, the prosecutor's office took control of the restoration of the rights of the affected citizens.

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Ecology and fight against landfills

Residents of Balashikha near Moscow asked the President in 2017 to close the garbage dump near the houses. The residential complexes "Yuzhnoye Kuchino" and "Yuzhnoye Kuchino - 2" were built in dangerous proximity to the landfill, where fires regularly occurred. Vladimir Putin instructed to close the landfill within a month, and the official who issued the permit for the construction of housing resigned after criticizing the president. Now the landfill "Kuchino" is reclaimed.

In 2018, the appeal and on the direct line of the President came from the volunteer Irina Levicheva: she asked the head of state to pay attention to closed landfills, where regional operators continue to dump waste. This situation occurred in settlements in several subjects, including the Alexandrov landfill in the village of Mashkovo in the Vladimir region. Rosprirodnadzor conducted an inspection on the appeal and imposed a fine of 100 thousand rubles on the company "Raduga", which leases the landfill, for failure to comply with environmental and sanitary-epidemiological requirements for waste management. In 2023, a reclamation project for the Alexandrovsky landfill was developed.

Fighting fraudsters

At the direct line in 2021, the issue of combating telephone fraudsters was raised. A pensioner from Krasnoyarsk Lyubov Shendeleeva complained to the President about the impunity of attackers, who after exposure send threatening messages. Vladimir Putin instructed the Central Bank and law enforcement agencies to strengthen the fight against "criminal manifestations."

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In July 2024, the Bank of Russia launched a joint project with commercial banks and telecom operators to identify numbers and accounts used to defraud citizens. Banks are now obliged to block transactions on suspicious details, otherwise they will have to compensate the deceived customers at their own expense.

During the "Results of the Year" of 2024, this issue was also raised, the President said that it should be solved on the territory of the Russian Federation and to delimit the size of loans that banks can issue quickly. He also advised Russians not to pick up the phone to avoid the risk of being cheated by fraudsters.

Every year the number of applications for the direct line is growing, so now a digital assistant has been brought in to handle the appeals. This year, the questions for the direct line are processed by the Russian neural network GigaChat, which helps to solve questions much faster. The broadcast of the direct line with the President can be viewed on the Izvestia website.