Overview
- At Moscow’s Gostiny Dvor, the combined “Direct Line” and press conference ran over four hours with moderators Pavel Zarubin and Yekaterina Berezovskaya and more than 700 journalists in attendance.
- Organizers said more than 2.5 million submissions were processed, with state outlets citing up to 3 million, using a new Max messenger chatbot and Sber’s GigaChat to group topics.
- Putin repeated long-standing claims that Kyiv backed out of talks and framed Russia’s demands as security-driven, while rejecting Western narratives about NATO and responsibility for the war.
- He acknowledged slower growth of about 1% this year and defended a VAT increase to 22% starting next year as a fiscal step he described as temporary, pointing to multi-year GDP gains.
- Questions highlighted social strains such as delayed payments and pensions, utilities and internet issues, and the broadcast featured offbeat moments including an alien query, a live proposal, and on-screen texts like “not a direct line, but a circus.”