Overview
- He joked the object was “Russia’s secret weapon” before stating it is an interstellar comet about 259 million km from Earth and not a threat, contrasting it with the moon at roughly 400,000 km.
- Organizers said the televised session ran about four hours and drew roughly 2.5 million submitted questions through the combined Q&A and phone-in format.
- Putin repeated his line blaming Kyiv and Western backers for the war, describing the 2014 change of government in Ukraine as an “anti-constitutional coup.”
- The tightly choreographed show mixed human-interest moments with spectacle, including pre-arranged questions, reporters’ placards, a live proposal and on-screen sarcastic texts from viewers.
- A newly decorated “Hero of Russia,” Naran Ochir-Goryayev, was spotlighted and asked about the Seversk assault, while a small bakery owner’s complaint about higher taxes drew a detailed response from Putin.