Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual marathon call-in show, Direct Line, is usually a carefully crafted production designed to show how the Kremlin’s top guy cares about ordinary people’s concerns and quickly responds to resolve issues that local officials ignore.
The nationwide show has state television reporters in far-flung parts of the country set up with citizens to ask Putin obviously scripted questions. Other questions are chosen from callers, sent in recorded messages or come from the selected audience.
Most questions this year, like every year, were fairly bland, pandering, or focused on specific and recurring issues such as fixing Russia’s economy …read more
Source: Voice of America
