The Russian President Vladimir Putin held his annual televised Q&A session officially known as 'The Direct Line with Vladimir Putin'. The Russian people sent some 2 million questions that they wanted to ask the president.
Among this year’s key topics are the economic situation in the country, social and everyday problems. According to the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, this year the people demonstrated little concern with the currency rate. Among other popular issues are the quality of roads, the university acceptance state exam and the high price of gasoline.
"As usual, it is a great opportunity for analysis. It's probably the best public opinion poll in the world, which the president uses in his everyday work," TASS cited Peskov.
According to TNS Russia estimates, Vladimir Putin's Q&A session in 2015 was watched by 8.4 million people. The longest Q&A session took place in 2013 when Putin was answering questions for four hours and 48 minutes.
The first question was from the city of Omsk about the poor quality of the roads in the city. Putin answered that a good deal of money has been earmarked for road building and repairs, but one must make sure that the allocated funds are spent on this very projects.
The next question was "Who should I believe, the government or my bills?" "Both," the President responded, adding that the government did not mislead the people, speaking about inflation of 12.9% per annum, which is the averaged data. "The grocery bill increased substantially. To a certain extent the rise in food prices is a man-made result of measures taken to develop the agricultural sector under Western sanctions," - he noted.
"Last year the gross domestic product declined by 3.7%. This year the government expects the economy to continue decline slightly. Next year we expect a 1.4% growth," - Putin said.
The Russian leader explained the partial withdrawal of the Russian Air Forces from Syria. He noted that Russia has left the trained Syrian army, which has already taken Palmyra. "It is necessary to hold peace talks in Syria, adopt a new constitution and hold elections based on the constitution," he stressed.
Speaking about the Russian-Turkish relations, Putin said that Russia still regarded Turkey as a friendly nation but the controversial behavior of some Turkish officials raised concerns. "We do not find ourselves, and we will not find ourselves, in a ring of hostility. This can be absolutely ruled out. We have very good relations with most of the countries in the world. And here we consider Turkey to be our friend and the Turkish people - a friendly nation, with whom we are definitely going to be building the best possible friendly relations," he said.
"But we have problems with some political leaders whose behavior, actions we consider inappropriate. A reaction is absolutely necessary, otherwise they will be at your neck and will be chasing you away," he added.
The President was also asked about the construction of the energy to Crimea. Vladimir Putin said that the third cable of the energy bridge will be put into operation today and the fourth will be installed in 2-3 weeks.
To a question "who is worse for Russia - Clinton or Trump", Putin responded that "it is not about particular people". "Our partners need to act not from a position of force, but with respect".
Answering the question about the lifting of Western sanctions, Putin said he does not believe that Western sanctions on Russia will be lifted any time soon.
This year's conference has lasted for 3 hours and 40 minutes.
