Putin answers questions from citizens and journalists in TV show

At the traditional annual press conference, Vladimir Putin confirmed his willingness to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine. He is also prepared to make admissions. He did not give details of possible compromises, but once again accused Ukraine of blocking negotiations.

The Kremlin chief was also optimistic that Moscow would regain control of the Kursk border region, which is partially occupied by Ukrainian armed forces. “We will absolutely throw them out,” Putin said. However, he “unfortunately cannot answer by when this will happen at the moment”.

In August, Ukraine launched a surprise military offensive in the Russian border region of Kursk and occupied around a thousand square meters of land. However, the offensive soon stalled and Russia was now able to recapture large parts of its territory.

Putin also used the press conference to threaten the West. Western anti-aircraft systems have no chance against the newly developed Oreshnik medium-range missile. “There is no chance of shooting down these missiles,” said the Kremlin chief. If the West doubts the effectiveness of the missile, it is welcome to designate a target in Kiev, protected by all available anti-aircraft weapons, that the Oreshnik should fire on.

Putin spoke of an “experiment, a high-tech duel of the 21st century.” The West could station all the anti-aircraft weapons and missile shields it has there. Then it will become clear whether they can stop the medium-range missile. Russia is ready for such an experiment. Putin was responding to a question from the Russian army broadcaster Zvezda, which had cited an alleged assessment by Western experts that Oreshnik would be easy to combat in its early stages.

In November, Russia fired such a missile, which could in principle be equipped with nuclear weapons, at Ukraine for the first time. At that time, the industrial city of Dnipro was hit. However, the damage was minor. The projectile did not carry nuclear warheads.

Putin reiterated that Russia is ready to use nuclear weapons in an emergency. The new doctrine makes it possible to respond to an attack by non-nuclear countries supported by nuclear powers with a nuclear strike if Russia’s sovereignty is threatened. The nuclear security guarantees also affect neighboring Belarus.

Like last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold his big annual press conference on Thursday. The question and answer session for journalists is a media spectacle on state television combined with the TV show “The Direct Wire”, in which citizens can describe their problems, to form the program “Results of the Year”. The question and answer session began at 12 p.m. local time (10 a.m. CET). According to the state news agency Tass, more than a million questions were previously sent to the head of state – but last year there were even one and a half million.

The country’s many problems such as poverty, social hardship, complaints about health care and a lack of infrastructure are always topics of such question and answer sessions. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, war has dominated the agenda. Putin repeatedly uses the format to portray himself as a caretaker and problem solver.

The Russian channels, which practically all broadcast the question time, have planned around three hours for it. However, there have been significantly longer events in the past.