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Putin's Call-In Show Confirmed for April 17

The Kremlin on Thursday confirmed that a show in which President Vladimir Putin will directly answer questions from the public will indeed happen on April 17, starting at noon.

Questions can be submitted either online via the site www.moskva-putinu.ru or by calling the number +7-800-200-40-40, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Last year's show, which went on for more than four hours, featured 85 questions, about 30 of which were posed directly by citizens.

This year's broadcast, to air on national television and radio stations, is expected to cover "Crimea, the international situation, the domestic economy and the ruble," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Kommersant newspaper earlier this week.

The show will also reportedly include questions posed via video links from Crimea and the Gazprom-run Arctic oil platform that Greenpeace activists attempted to scale in a protest last year.

During his 14 years as president and prime minister, Putin has held 11 call-in shows.

Two years ago the show was moved from December to April, to avoid making Russians wait outside in the cold for a chance to get a microphone and ask the president a question, the Kremlin said.


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