The fear of a dictator? Putin canceled the press conference

For the first time in 10 years, Russian President Vladimir Putin did not hold a major press conference on the year’s results.

Vladimir Putin, the year he invaded Ukraine, decided not to hold the traditional final press conference. Naturally, such actions always resemble a performance, with questions like “what did Putin think about Santa Claus”, however, now there is no longer any opportunity to ask the Russian dictator a question in a subject matter.

official explanation

According to presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin will not hold a major press conference this year, but the Kremlin expects the head of state to talk to journalists “during foreign trips.”

Vladimir Putin’s first so-called major press conference took place in 2001, and after his return to the Kremlin in 2012, they have been held annually in December. They were all long (on average they lasted about 4 hours).

For example, when asked about the high-profile investigation by Bellingcat, The Insider and Der Spiegel that oppositionist Alexei Navalny was poisoned by the FSB, Putin’s explanation boiled down to the phrase that if Russia wanted to poison Navalny, it would bring up the matter. at one end.

This year, Putin has not yet made an appeal to the Federal Assembly. The presidential press secretary could not answer the question on Monday if the message will happen before the end of the year. According to him, this issue “needs to be clarified.”

Don’t want to report

“One cannot say that nothing is happening in the country – so much is happening that one month now fits more than another year,” said political scientist Abbas Gallyamov.

According to him, “Putin can still talk about some details in the framework of daily events, but he can no longer talk about the country’s prospects as a whole, about long-term goals , about movement strategy.”

However, political scientist Tatyana Stanovaya sees the reason for the cancellation of events not because Putin has nothing to say, but because he doesn’t want to do it.

“The more strength and energy Putin spends on ‘global’ topics, the less he wants to waste on ‘small things’ like direct lines or press conferences,” the expert wrote on his Telegram channel.

According to him, the Russian president has a “psychological unwillingness” to “report”: “For external audiences, he can say whatever he sees fit – there will be a reason, but he sees no point in communicating- talk to the internal audience. Let the subordinates do it … ”