Sputnik reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a live broadcast on December 19, combined with a press conference. The head of state will directly summarize the results of the past year and answer questions from journalists and Russian citizens.
The program “Results of the year with Vladimir Putin” airs at noon Moscow time. Federal TV channels devote three to four hours to the broadcast.
A call center was set up to collect citizen requests; it began operating on the night of December 8. Questions were accepted until the end of the program.
According to data from the Rossiya 24 TV channel, the total number of questions from Russian citizens sent to Russian President Vladimir Putin's direct line reached two million, three hours before the program started.
For the first time this year, artificial intelligence (AI) was connected to handle questions on a direct line with President Putin. AI helps process a variety of data. President Putin himself, at the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, said that the results of using AI when handling direct questions exceeded all expectations.
According to statistics obtained from questions received by Sber's GigaChat artificial intelligence, citizens under 18 years of age are directly concerned about education and science issues. People aged 18 to 35 are mainly concerned about housing issues.
Russian citizens aged 30 to 50 are most concerned about issues related to the health care system. People aged 50 and over are most concerned about social policy.
AI also identified the top “hot” topics in the country, including housing affordability, utilities and health care.
The issue of food prices has also become one of the most pressing issues for Russians to contact via the president's direct line. Russians are also concerned about issues related to the special military operation in Ukraine, as well as support for servicemen and their families.
Among the most pressing issues on the subject of housing and social services are roads and infrastructure, sports grounds and children, the condition of roofs, and water supply and drainage problems.
Foreign policy issues were also in the spotlight. Russians also asked direct questions about the international agenda, with many interested in Moscow's deeper engagement with US President-elect Donald Trump.
Other topics include BRICS, independence from the dollar and cooperation with China. Many of the “Results of the Year” subscribers were concerned about military exercises involving the US military near Russia’s borders. In response, Russians proposed holding joint Russian-Chinese exercises off the coast of the US.
