Putin's annual press conference is a rare opportunity for Russian and international journalists to question—if not always challenge—the Russian president. For over three hours on 17 December, Vladimir Putin discussed a wide range of topics fielded from 1,400 accredited journalists present, selected by press secretary Dmitry Peskov. This was Putin's eleventh annual major press conference, which have run for up to five hours. Fawning questions were a fixture—such as one on the president's 'sporty physique' (he doesn't owe it to doping)—but there were several pointed criticisms.
This year saw no real revelations, but a couple of confirmed suspicions. Firstly, Putin hinted that Katerina Tikhonova—identified as such by journalist Oleg Kashin—was indeed his daughter. Putin told journalists following the event that Donald Trump was a 'colourful and talented man' who had a positive approach to restoring relations with Russia. Disgraced FIFA head Sepp Blatter 'should be awarded the Nobel peace prize' and the Turkish leadership 'decided to lick the Americans in a certain place'.
The highlight of the evening was his roundabout admission of a Russian military presence in eastern Ukraine. Putin insisted that 'we never said that there were no people [in Ukraine] who were carrying out certain tasks, including in the military sphere', adding that 'this does not mean there are [regular] Russian troops there'. Putin has in fact successively denied the presence of any Russian armed forces—excluding Russian citizens acting independently—in the Donbas. Roman Tsymbalyuk of Ukraine's UNIAN news agency looked singularly unimpressed. There was, naturally, no follow-up question. Vladimir Putin at his 11th annual media question-and-answer session in Krasnaya Presnya in Moscow, 2015. Photo (c): Nikolay Vinokurov / visual RIANJournalist Yekaterina Vinokurova raised the issue of Aleksei Navalny's investigation into prosecutor Yuri Chaika and his links to organised crime. The Kremlin has dismissed the investigation as 'foreign ordered'. Putin equivocated, not explicitly defending the prosecutor general, saying that he had not 'wanted to mention the issue' and that the government 'was working on it'. The president moved swiftly on, though perhaps pro-Kremlin media has answered for him: a new documentary on the Gazprom-owned NTV channel now attempts to prove Navalny's links to Bill Browder, head of Hermitage Capital and earlier accused by Chaika of having commissioned the investigation.
