This annual TV marathon is Vladimir Putin’s happy place. He is centre stage, holding court and putting the world to rights.
The unusual format – part press conference, part phone-in – casts him as Russia‘s agony aunt-in-chief, fielding calls from ordinary citizens voicing their concerns and complaints.
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Those concerns have all been carefully screened, of course, to ensure he isn’t asked anything too controversial. And the general theme is: Vlad’ll Fix It.
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Across four and a half hours, the topics ranged from phone scams and pornography to mortgages and the price of butter.
Russia ‘ready to compromise’
The issue that cropped up most frequently, however, was the war in Ukraine – or the Special Military Operation, as Russia still refers to it nearly three years after it began.
And on that front the Kremlin leader made his most newsworthy comments – that Russia is ready to compromise.
It’s the first time he’s signalled a willingness to make concessions in order to achieve peace.
Until now, he’s always stated two conditions must be met for a ceasefire: that Ukraine hands over the four territories, in their entirety, that Russia occupies the majority of; and that Kyiv abandons its NATO ambitions.
There was never any room for manoeuvre on those, but now it seems there is. Russia has no conditions for talks, he said.
He also said he was willing to meet with Donald Trump, whose imminent arrival as US president seems to have precipitated the Kremlin’s softening stance.
Despite that shift, though, Putin was sounding confident on the war. He said Russia was close to achieving its primary goals in Ukraine, that Russia was in a stronger position now than at the start, and he even proposed a missile duel, to showcase the supposed invincibility of Russia’s new “Oreshnik” hypersonic missile.
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I think that confidence comes from Moscow undeniably having the upper hand on the battlefield. Putin seems to believe that means he will have the stronger hand when it comes to the negotiating table.
It wasn’t all smiles, though. When asked how the war had changed him, he said he doesn’t joke as much any more and had almost stopped laughing. It was a rare admission that his full-scale invasion of Russia’s sovereign neighbour has brought about darker times for both countries.
