F1 please. Our French colleagues please.
40 F1 French TV.
Mr. President, one of my compatriots, the French man Laurent, has been put in jail for three years for an administrative offense. Now the Russian justice system is raising the issue of espionage, which worsens the situation.
Please, could you repeat the name of the person?
And who is that? I have never heard about him.
He was a researcher in Russia and he wasn't registered as a foreign agent. He didn't know that the law changed. Well, he was put in jail for three years for this administrative offense. His parents and children are deeply worried right now. We know there are huge tensions between France and Russia. But as the new year approaches, can his family hope for a presidential pardon or an exchange back to France?
Thank you. You know, I know nothing about this case. This is the first time I hear it. But I promise you that I will try to find out the information about this and if there is any chance to solve this issue in a positive way.
I have been blogging for 15 years about Russian and foreign technologies. I represent many people because many people follow my networks. We're working actively on import substitution, the creation of the technological sovereignty of our country. One of the most meaningful events this year was the introduction of the national messenger. There is the market of messengers and there are many messengers that have been used by people. So my question is the following: the creation of the national messenger, was that important and was that necessary? Can the Max messenger truly be competitive compared to other messengers? And what do you think about such competition? As a blogger, I would like to ask you to follow my channel on Max Technologies. I know that you know a lot in this topic and I have remembered that today is my father's birthday, the 19th of December. I would like to use this opportunity to congratulate all the people that have birthdays today.
There are hundreds of people and we echo your congratulations to your father. As for the Max messenger and the competition, we always need competition. I'm sure that there will be competition. As for Telegram and other messengers, there is just one issue: complying with Russian legislation. The problem with these messaging applications is that the leadership of the countries where they were created were introducing restrictions not allowing them to comply with our legislation. This led to the slowdown of such applications. Well, you know it. I'm sure that Max is also going to be competitive. Was it necessary? Of course it was. I would like to point out that in general, we had all the technological instruments apart from a messaging application, and it is truly important that Russia has reached full technological sovereignty. Russia is one of the three countries that has such sovereignty. First is the US, then China, and now it is Russia. Besides, there are several services that can be provided to our citizens through the Max national system. Such services could not be provided using foreign systems, first of all due to security reasons. This is a necessary step and I agree with you that there should be competition.
We have received many questions about healthcare through the Max application, and many of the issues were solved even before the direct line. Around 500,000 questions were received from the Max application, many from the youth and the children. When we live almost in the 19th century, when your funates are going to listen to you and listen to the people, please could you take a note of this? We need to understand what this is about. These are text messages. We should stop speaking about Ukraine. We should solve our own problems. Speak about our own problems. I absolutely agree with you.
Mr. President, hello. My name is Daniel and I'm at the international literature forum. There are many adults and I would like to ask you about the trend of books being read by the youth and by children. Usually kids prefer very short videos. What should we do about that? Is there a book that according to you every Russian citizen should read? Thank you.
Unfortunately, the reduction in the reading of books is a problem all over the world. Some time ago, we were proud that the USSR was the country where people read the most. Right now, there are many people that read books. But unfortunately, as I already said, all over the world, the number of people that read books is reducing. What should we do about that? First of all, it depends on school, on family, on parents. We need to pay more attention in this regard to children. We need to maintain competition with the tablets and the modern technological means. I'm speaking about parents maintaining this competition with these technological means because this is very accessible and very interesting, and we need to find a way to make books interesting for children. If we are creative about this, it is possible even if it's complex. I've already mentioned it once, but I would like to say once again: I spoke to a priest and I asked him what people say mostly when they die. You know what the answer was? They say that they paid not enough attention to children. I don't want to personify anything. It's nothing specific. This is not a secret. But this was the overall message and it regards everything: education, providing some guiding principles, values. This young boy asked me about a book that everyone should read. Well, world literature, Russian literature, classics, modern literature. There are many topics to be discussed that are very useful, but the main thing is that the book should create the conscience, the idea of the world. But it's very hard for me to name a specific book.
Another question that we received through Max from Natana: what are your working hours? What is the plate of your car? Actually, I don't know if there is a plate. Actually, I just take it and go somewhere. As for the working hours, well, I keep late hours and sometimes it's getting even later and later. Well, I'm not going to say because it is a violation of our labor code and this is not correct. You need to be fit. You need to go to bed on time and I call everyone to such a regime of work.
A question from Victoria. It's to you and to Pavel. Let's watch it.
Mr. President, hello. My name is Victoria. I really find it great what Pavel Rubin does. When Pavel will go to pension, I will take over and please be the president till that time and I will work with you and cover your work. I would like to congratulate you on the new year and wish you good health and always make right decisions.
Victoria, thank you very much. I congratulate you on the new year as well and I wish you all the best, success in school, and wish you reliable friends by your side. Well, let's keep Pavel for some time. He's quite a young man. I'll ask Pavel. I'm sure he will agree to take you for training. I'm sure he can do a lot of good things. He's quite young. And when I will go into a well-deserved rest and you will be trained by Pavel, it will help you to become a journalist at a university and you will work together with Pavel even at the federal level. This is what we are truly going to do. But still, I'm not on pension right now. I'll keep asking questions.
So what is really important for every one of us? Recently you have spoken about the opportunities and the threats of artificial intelligence. You can solve any task without even thinking using your mind. Another message from Max Messenger: what can be the balance between the modern technologies and the tasks of developing intelligence in children? Thank you. Please, we'll be grateful for your answer and please come for the first of September 2026 to the opening of our school.
This is a relevant issue, very complex regarding the problem itself. There is a great volume of information. There are new instruments of solving tasks today. You can use the capacities of artificial intelligence. In fact, danger appears that teenagers, students will not try to find the decisions themselves, but as Pavel said, they will just press a button and receive the necessary answer. This is a complex task. So, it will depend on the organization of the education process in schools and in universities, in all the educational institutions. It means this is how we should organize the education process so that all of this was done and the tasks were solved at schools in classrooms. So the tasks were posed in classrooms before the students and pupils and they were solved by a specific student or pupil so that they need to use their brain, so that they would think, so that the development of new technologies would make that part of our society, part of our population would be thinking about what they're doing and the other part would follow a very simple path, would use technologies, press correct buttons, that would degrade from the intellectual point of view. This is something that we should avoid and this is the task of the education system as well as the task for families. Well, I have nothing to add to that. Let's return to the audience.
Oh, forgive me but it's very important for us, TV channel. Thank you for recognizing the Satanist movement as an extremist one. There are still occult services, esoterics that are provided in our country. You can see them in social networks, in books. There are tarot cards that are being sold in shops and last year people spent more than 2.3 trillion rubles on such services. This TV channel made a movie about the magicians and sorcerers when we spoke about many true stories and about this business, but still people keep going to sorcerers. Is it possible to introduce a ban on magical and occult advertisement that contradicts your decree on the preservation of our traditions and values and the decision of the Supreme Court on the prohibition of the Satanist movement?
As for the legislation, the decision of the Supreme Court and the Constitution Court, everyone must follow them. I will have a look at it without any doubt and I will instruct the relevant agencies to follow this up closely to avoid the violations at the highest legislative level and the court decisions. I truly agree with you. Satanism and cult services, sorceries, this is nonsense. That is something that confuses people, brings them to darkness and affects them greatly, affects their psyche, their morale, and we need to fight against it but do it carefully without violating human rights. Your colleagues have mentioned it as well. We shouldn't be excessive about these restrictions. We need an analysis and timely decisions. This is what we're going to do together with you, the representatives of the media like your media, the representatives of our traditional religions as well as with the Russian Orthodox Church.
Taking lots of questions from this sector. I can see Auto Radio. Auto Radio, Mr. Putin, a question to you. It's considered to believe that the generation of the 90s was lost for the nation. What about the current generation? Do you feel the support coming from the young ones? You know, I cannot agree with the statement that this was a lost generation for this country. The issue of fathers and sons is an eternal one. And you know the well-known novel titled 'Fathers and Sons'. At all times, everybody keeps saying that when we were young, in the days of our youth, things were different, etc. You know, after I graduated from the university, I was recruited by the special services and I joined the external intelligence service of the USSR. So the verification of the fitness of recruits, whether they were suitable to work in an intelligence service, one of the tests there was putting people in dangerous, risky situations, stressful situations so that they can manifest themselves. In any critical situation, people manifest and show their true worth and faith. And now we live in the context of a special military operation. We have 700,000 people in the fighting area, mostly young ones. Many of them are from that generation of the 1990s. How are they showing their face and showing themselves? Can you have an idea about how these young ones show themselves? Well, these are the children of the 1990s and they are heroes. They are the backbone and you can take them as a model. So this is the answer with respect to the young generation. Yesterday we analyzed the huge array of inputs that were received in the view to the calling and lots of questions were submitted by young ones, which means that they are more active. They have a more active position than previous generations.
And I can see a person in a sweater. You don't have any note or sign. Good afternoon.
Media 73. My question is about transportation, aviation, and public transport. Next year, the Star factory turns 50 years. It turned out the IL-76, the Ruslan jumbo jets, and now it works on a new contemporary make of airplane. Do we actually need, to your mind, a modern cargo craft similar to Ruslan? And my second part of my question is about the public transport for Yakutsk. It's a huge problem and we discussed this issue with the governor. Will there be any specific support for Yakutsk's public transport system and procurement with the help of the federal government?
And actually, we have a program in place to provide for the procurement of public transport for different regions and that was always viewed also as a way of supporting our automobile industry. As regards to that, we'll discuss that with the governor. Well, discussing what the most difficult things are, I cannot answer this question right now. We will discuss that with the governor, rest assured, and if need be, we will provide necessary support. As for the Gagarin Star aircraft construction factory, this is a very relevant and acute issue, quite important for us. We have a very good and longstanding tradition of aircraft construction both in the military sector and civilian aircraft. Historically, our civil aviation and aircraft manufacturing was always a follow-up to the defense hardware and defense equipment. The performance of these aircraft is different, the consumption of fuel, etc. Their parameters differ, but we always took pride in our Tupolev, Yakovlev, and Ilyushin makes. But originally, these were primarily and initially military machines. And what we need now for sure is our state-of-the-art, modern, homemade aircraft. The growth of air ticket prices is due to the shortage of the number of aircraft that we have. Those international manufacturers that used to supply aircraft to us decided to quit operation because of some political reasons, and that is bad for them because it subverts their reputation. But this is good for us because it makes us be on our own, work harder, and take advantage of the capability of our market. And you know, in the past, I spoke with the incumbent deputy prime minister who headed a lot in the past and I told him that it was necessary to buy more domestically made aircraft and imports. And actually now, we have come up with the MS-21 that we're rolling out. It is a very good machine, perfectly suitable for international markets. The Superjet 100 is another make that we have fully localized. We need our own Russia-made regional aircraft. You asked whether we need those jumbo jets similar to Ruslan. Yes, we do. The IL-76 will be modernized, but we need that. This is high-tech manufacturing requiring very long production chains and a level of cooperation to be profound enough. There are some additional pending issues to be resolved, but we will handle that. Definitely, we wish the Aviastar all the best and we will assist this enterprise.
Mr. President, we are approaching the 4 hours threshold. Let's give it to Mr. Peskov. We are now nearing the four hours of live broadcast and it's kind of a record-setting time. So I suggest we should round off and wind up. There'll be just a quick set of quick-fire questions. Just a quick firework. In hundreds of years, schoolchildren will study this time. What would you place in the time capsule for that to describe or depict our era, to stand for this era?
Well, I think that all of us think about the future of their children and grandchildren and the future of our country. I also do. I know what I should be telling, probably several things in a row. Well, I'll try my best. We'll take a pen and we jot down: 'We, living in Russia in this incessant finite flux of time in the 20th and the 21st century, received everything done by our predecessors with gratitude, by our ancestors with gratitude. We lived as everybody at all times with our routine needs. But we were not at a standstill. We made headway. We struggled. We worked. We fought and we tried to resolve the issues that our time, our epoch set forth ahead of us, in front of us. And we thought about our time and about the future and about you. And if you're holding our message right now, that means that you also feel yourselves being part of our joint shared infinite flux of time, our common shared flux of time. And you are aware of the connection of times and this is very important. Congratulations. That means that we also, as we worked and struggled, did not leave our lives in vain and we succeeded in many respects. And we wish you to be blessed with luck always and be happy, and your kids and grandchildren and great-grandchildren be proud of you as we are proud of our fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers. Full stop.'
Mr. President, are you collecting information or material for future memoirs as other world leaders?
No, I just think that one should keep working because memoirs would assess those who write them. If people consider it appropriate, let them assess me and my work and the work of my team and all the people that are behind me.
You've been telling about the achievements of the country. What about your personal achievements?
My personal achievements are inseparable from the achievements of this country. This is what I live by. I work day and night.
Have you ever once in a lifetime sent a message via messenger? Have you done a video circle and sent it to your nearest and dearest?
So I saw your flat at the Kremlin. It's quite bad. An empty fridge, just one dairy drink. Where is coziness?
You know, all that was designed by the previous head of the operations unit under President Yeltsin and no repair has happened since. Actually, I think we should ask Mr. ... that was done under the standards of maintenance and operations. So that was designed to provide opportunity for rest and recreation in the daytime. I doubt President Yeltsin spent nights there, but I live there. This is just the coincidence of circumstances. I'm satisfied with everything. This is first thing. And secondly, you know, comfort and coziness are created by people. So when my family members appear there, I just feel cozy.
Do you have any professional deformations or personal distortions?
Well, yes, as any other man fully submerged in the work.
Which moment or development of this year do you memorize in the first place and which would you like to forget?
Well, with respect to which I memorized in the first place and recall in the first place, it is very hard to say. But I think that the new year that we celebrated last time happened two or three weeks ago and this is not an overstatement. You know, everything is so compressed and we have had many positive developments since then. And at the Defense Ministry collegium meeting, I spoke about the development of our armed forces that have become the most combat-efficient in the world given the advances in the strategic arms that we have had. And these are major landmarks in the life of our country, not the armed forces alone. And we have been able to preserve the resilience of our economy. And many decisions were made to this effect and these are positive developments without a doubt. And speaking about what I'd like to forget, well, I have my own view on that. If you want to forget something, that means that there was a failure or you did something in a bad way and you should not forget that. You should rectify your mistakes and correct your mistakes and make conclusions.
Which trait of your character do you dislike? Is there one?
Well, listen. People just wonder. I'll try to respond. My life is absolutely conspicuous in front of the cameras. Speaking about what I like and what I dislike in myself would give rise to rumors and idle talk.
Do you have a true faithful friend? What is true friendship?
It's a matter of notions. In the first instance, true friendship means mercilessness. And in my situation, you know, some people around me are tempted to try to lay their hand on that. And I dare to affirm that those people whom I believe to be my friends, and I have such people, live in a very reserved way and I'm not ashamed of them.
What motivates you and makes you move forward and what keeps you in high spirits?
What motivates me and makes me move on? It's the trust of people. And when I hear some things, well, some of the things sound in a jarring way and others are inspiring and they are motivating. The confidence and faith in the future of Russia is what prevents me from losing heart.
What is the best thing for a boy age 13: to excel at studies or love his motherland or anything else?
Well, he should love his mother first of all, and this is not an irony. I once again would turn to that. He needs everything for him. We had a discussion the day before yesterday when I invited him to come to the Kremlin and previously when he had made a report, I had asked colleagues to ask what outstanding issues are there, including some routine things and day-to-day life related things. And we talked with him and I may, forgive me, I think he'll forgive me, I just asked him, 'What would you like?' And he responded, 'My mom is elderly and she has some health conditions and problems. Will you please help my mother?' And such an attitude towards one's mother is not merely an attitude of one person to another person. It's a mindset, a mentality. So people with this attitude become heroes of Russia.
And what about love at first sight? Does such a thing exist?
Where does motherland start from for you personally?
For me personally, well, it starts with my parents.
Man certainly needs to believe in something. What do you believe in?
God Almighty, who is with us and who never forsakes Russia.
The number of messages has exceeded 3 million, which is unprecedented. So the last question: what will Russia look like in 200 years? Will it exist even?
Well, 200 years. Well, I don't know how it happened, but you've asked me to project a message hundreds of years into the future, which is very hard to forecast because given the growing technological component, given the increased influence of AI, given our accomplishments in genetics and biotechnologies, it's almost impossible to forecast how human consciousness is going to evolve, whether borders will be there in future hundreds of years hence. So it's kind of a message from us to our descendants. Well, I tried to do that based on how things stand right now. But as for what is going to happen in 200 years, you know, 200 years is not that long because the Bolshoi Theater is celebrating its 250th anniversary. So for Russia, 200 years is not that big of a time stretch. I'm hopeful that the country will be highly educated and this high level of education of our citizens is going to serve as a foundation for high technological development. With the help of these technologies, the country will be capable to address all the tasks in front of us, be that in the economy, in healthcare, social policies. It'll be living in peace, prosperity, having built ties with other countries on the basis of mutual respect between itself and its partners and all the actors of the international environment. Thank you.
Well, yes, just a moment. I promise this is not the end. Well, please, please, no noise, please. Let's go sector by sector. What's that? What's that about?
Mr. President, my name is Anna. I'm from Yakutia. It is translated from Yakutian as 'it's cold'. We know that Yakutia is a cold place. But we have very warm hearts and you know that better than anyone. So my question to you is as follows. Mr. President, I'm terribly nervous. I've been waiting for this chance to ask my question. In the Arctic in Yakutia, the electricity tariff for hospitals, schools, and other social facilities has grown 10 times over the last four years, from 5 to 50 rubles per kilowatt hour, which is an enormous burden given the fact that the efficiency is not growing at all. I'm terribly busy. No, no, no. Take it easy. Go ahead. But unfortunately, there's a high level of incidents and you know that in the Arctic and the North, an accident is almost a catastrophe. So is it possible to add the special allowance to us that used to be in place in the Russian high north and the far east? You've been to Yakutia here. Maybe you'll be in Yakutia in winter and with due respect, we'd like to interview you. And if you come to see us, I'll be happy to be the one interviewing you. Thank you very much.
Thank you for your words of appreciation, for the words of thanks to the pool. Yes. As for the special allowance, we will take that into account. Your economy is growing. It requires an increasing volume of electricity at competitive prices. The coal-based generation is developing, but other sources can be contemplated as well. And we are doing the work already in settlements and cities where the requisite infrastructure has to be set up, both social infrastructure and economic infrastructure. I'm not going to go into detail, but we know the problem and we'll certainly look into that. We will work on green sources of energy without forgetting, however, either gas-based generation or oil-based generation and other sources. Fuel oil, of course, is not that efficient as a source of energy, but we will certainly use different sources of energy and will also increase the capacity of the grid. We will certainly keep Yakutia in mind because Yakutia is the treasure trove of mineral wealth which still waits its hour to be extracted. Rest assured, I've jotted it down. We'll look into that. Artificial intelligence, I think that's relevant.
Good afternoon, Mr. President. 360 TV channel, Regina. You've spoken about AI today and you said it will not allow Russia's dependence on foreign neural networks. Does it mean that ChatGPT and other foreign neural networks are going to be prohibited? Is there going to be a special type of regulation in the field? And second question, if you allow that, you said that love at first sight exists. Mr. President, are you in love?
Yes, I am. That's the answer to the second part of your question. Whereas the first part of your question is concerned, I can tell you that we're not going to prohibit anything. There is Russian legislation. If there are certain violations of the legislation, then restrictions are put in place. But we're not going to introduce any bans or anything like that.
Yes, please. Go ahead. Mr. President, good afternoon. Tomsk is Russia's youth capital. I'd like to use this time on air. If you have not yet voted on our city, please vote because every seventh person who lives in Tomsk is a student. So a round of applause for Tomsk, please. Tomsk is indeed a city of students. Have you voted, Mr. President, if that's no secret?
For sure. We'll do. Well, we'll be hopeful. Well, even though we've got lots of young people, still we are lacking in blue-collar workers. We are lacking in seamstresses, drivers, and a number of other blue-collar jobs. Mr. President, is the government doing anything to rebuild the prestige of blue-collar work? And what about AI? Maybe we don't need seamstresses or drivers because AI is going to supplant those.
Well, I'm offended by your question because I think we are working systemically on preparing highly qualified workers and this is done in a systemic fashion. The worker profession is becoming very prestigious. It's becoming increasingly complicated and sophisticated, and that's why you can get that through vocational training. We've also got specialized education. We are going to hold competitions, we will increase the quality of education. We will fuse internship with education. We'll try to engage businesses. Incidentally, they are the ones who are most interested in young professionals coming to work for them and they've jumped on this bandwagon a long time ago trying to attract young professionals. There's a whole set of measures, a whole range of those, and we'll only expand them.
Unfortunately, we're getting breaking news. This is very important for one of those who is here is reporting that the girlfriend of Kirill Bashan has agreed to your proposal. She'll marry you.
About the material component of life. Well, of course, it's important. It's the right thing to do for the gentleman. He is the one supposed to contribute to addressing these material issues. Well, you know, we will take a hat and we'll do some collection. Well, at least for your wedding.
Another Ukraine. There's another question. Yes, we've covered Ukraine, but we have not yet covered another Ukraine.
Good afternoon. Another Ukraine Network Media. This is a network movement. Of course, my question is about Ukraine because it applies directly to our motherland, Russia. Trump has said that Zelensky is using war in order to avoid elections. And in response to that, Zelensky said he's ready to hold elections in 60 or 90 days, which is cynical lies. Because Zelensky has destroyed this country, he decided to choose arbitrariness and violence over democracy. Mr. President, you said that a referendum has to be held on the recognition of new territories in Ukraine as per the Ukrainian constitution. How can a referendum be held in a country where the regime has usurped power, destroying democracy and everything else? Because for a referendum to be held, first constitutional order has to be reestablished. The ban on 18 parties has to be lifted. A law has to be introduced on stopping the prosecution of those who spoke against the coup d'état because the amnesty was adopted after 2014, which basically pardoned those who were the ones initiating the coup and even the violence they employed for their own self-interest. Electoral law has to be reestablished as well because half of the Ukrainian population has fled from Zelensky. That's 18 million people according to the estimates. Where are they supposed to vote? Sanctions have to be lifted against Ukrainian citizens and the revocation of citizenship against those who did not agree to the neo-Nazi policy pursued by the regime. Media have to resume their activity after having been banned. Without these measures, a referendum would only mean legitimizing the criminal regime. Basically, election without election. Understandably, the criminal regime of Zelensky with the support of the West is not going to agree to that. In March this year, you proposed a way out: governance in Ukraine under the aegis of the UN, Russia, the US, and European countries, which would create the necessary environment for holding democratic elections. So my question is as follows: do you stick to that proposal you came up with on temporary governance in Ukraine, international governance? And if no environment is created for these elections, will you recognize the legitimacy of these elections?
Well, this is not a question. This is more of a political statement. I'll try to be brief. As far as elections in Ukraine are concerned, as far as the international temporary governance is concerned, well, yes, I did suggest that. It was only a hypothetical, and if the will were there on the side of the Western countries, then probably given the corruption scandals, it could be a thing to be considered. But as far as elections go, we hear statements from the heads of the regime. They insist that the Western countries and the US, and allegedly they are ready for those elections. Well, Western countries have to ensure security, that means they want a ceasefire. I would like to draw your attention to the following. Well, Russia did hold elections, both presidential elections, municipal elections, and regional elections. In September, Russia held another round of elections. But who ensured security during those elections? Quite the country. There were attempts to sabotage those elections with the view to dismantling our internal unity. There were strikes against polling stations. You know, I think that was in the Donetsk People's Republic. You know, people were queuing at the polling station. A shelling started. People went to the shelters and once the shelling was over, they came back and they cast their ballot. We never demanded anything. We just did what we thought was right. And I think the current representatives of the Kyiv regime could do the same if they truly wanted that. However, if they want to use the elections solely to put an end to Russia's advancement on the battlefield, then they are wrong. That said, I am going to say something which is probably going to sound surprising. We are willing to think about how to ensure security during elections in Ukraine. Well, we could refrain from strikes in the depth of Ukrainian territory on election day, but there is one nuance which we cannot circumvent, namely, in the territory of Russia, there are millions of Ukrainian citizens living, from 5 million to 10 million, and they are entitled to vote. And if elections were to be held, we have the right to demand that those who organize these elections should provide the right to cast the ballot to those Ukrainians who are currently residing in the territory of the Russian Federation. There are other nuances that have to be studied laboriously, but this is no idle matter. I do agree that the authorities in Ukraine sooner or later have to become legitimate and that is impossible without elections. Let's move to this sector, Siberia.
Mr. President, good afternoon. Hi, my name is Denis Shaluta. I'm a blogger from Siberia. I've got a TG channel. I cover social economic news and the development of Siberia. Since October this year, there are rumors circulating around the establishment of a cluster for deep processing of rare earths and non-ferrous metals. Do you think this is the best solution to provide our economy with critical metals and to relaunch Russia's industrialization? Because the prospects are enormous. They're huge. There is a will at the level of the Russian government to complete this project.
This is a very interesting project and you know, right along the line, these plans were formulated back during the Soviet times. This region is very promising and it has almost 360 sunny days. Even though it's in Siberia, the climate is very good and there are huge opportunities to extract mineral resources and process them. You know, the logistics is very good. Certainly, this cannot be addressed the way it used to be during the Soviet times through Gosplan and through allocating the requisite budgetary resources. That should be done by more market means. We need to make companies interested so that they would invest and the state would provide the necessary support. In general, such work in order to implement projects on this promising land is underway. I think it is very promising. We are finding investors, potential companies that could invest, and we need to support them, provide the necessary benefits and services, create logistics as well as the sources for power generation, so on and so forth. I'm not going to give the whole list because this could be a large-scale historical task. We will keep working on it without any doubt.
Hello. Good afternoon. Thank you very much for the opportunity to ask a question. Mr. President, you have said repeatedly, you've reminded that Russian culture is the backbone. I'm sorry. I'm sorry about that. Just don't worry. Well, you say that this is the basis for the development of society. It's important to preserve historical memory and the cultural diversity of Russian peoples. What are the cultural projects or any initiatives that are priority for you personally? And will Russia protect the Russian-speaking people abroad? You spoke about prioritizing. Yes, I spoke about prioritizing the cultural projects. And will Russia protect Russian-speaking people and the Russian language abroad? And the question is, will there be created a program in Russia, a program for people that will be specializing on fighting the information war being waged against us by the West? Are we going to create a specialty that will be for specialists concerning information wars? The next question is about the prestige of the work of teachers.
Oh, regarding the protection of compatriots abroad, of course, we'll work on that and we're working on it. We'll keep doing that. What I would like to draw attention to is what we're going to do about that. We need to do everything not to make the situation of our compatriots even worse. So we need to be very careful without using aggressive means. As for training information war experts, well, it's not really combinable. As for the war experts, we have such and we'll keep training them, given that this is part of improving the armed forces. As for the work with the compatriots, in total, this work is underway. We'll continue it. We need to introduce modern instruments so that they would be effective, so that they would be accessible for the consumers. As for the separate meaningful cultural projects, there are many of them. I would not like to give any specific projects because it creates an unhealthy competition, meaning that we support one project and do not support the others. But there are such projects and we will support them. You can be sure of that.
Hello. Well, it was the poster was held by a young man because...
I'm really tired. I'm from Tatarstan Republic. Well, my colleague from Kazan already asked a question. Thank you very much for M12. It's really easy to travel from Moscow to Kazan with children, with family. But we always want something more. Well, you understand by my poster. There is a high-speed highway. Is there any chance that our children would use it?
Are you speaking about the high-speed railway? Yes. Yes. We are already working on design, for instance, St. Petersburg-Moscow railway, and we're also going to implement the Moscow-Kazan project.
Thank you very much for our joint work. Thank you.
Mr. Putin, colleagues, there is a very important piece of news from Brussels. There was a failure. It was a real failure to take the assets. They cannot steal them, but they're trying, but still they cannot do this. Well, stealing is not really a correct definition for that. Stealing is when someone is doing it secretly, and they are doing it openly. This is a robbery. This is robbery. Why they failed to do this? Why they failed to implement this robbery? Because the consequences can be truly harsh for the robbers. Why is that? It's really hard to do that. Because they declare that they're not going to rob it, to take it. The idea is to make a credit using our assets. But you cannot just give out a loan. This will make consequences for the budget of a country and increases the budget debt of every country. If someone gives a loan, even secured by our foreign assets, it must be reflected in the budget of a country that does it. For example, in France, the public debt is 120% and ours is at 17%. And our budget deficit is 2.6%. Next, it's going to be 1.6%. In France, it is 6%. So now they will assume additional liabilities and it'll be quite hard to pass such a budget. And all these are the reasons for the difficulty of taking decisions related to the robbery of someone else's assets. There will be graver consequences for those who might endeavor that. This will not be a blow to their image, but this will subvert all the confidence in the Euro area. Actually, very many countries store their foreign reserves in the Euro zone, and many of those having spare money like the oil producing countries. If they have a look at what might be happening, they will have doubts and they already have doubts and concerns. But what if this happens? You know, well begun, it can be further replicated. They might think now some people dislike the conduct of the special military operation and the fight against neo-Nazism in Ukraine. And next, someone might not like the fight, the struggle with the LGBT movement. And Muslim countries have stringent laws to this respect. And this might be another pretext for the alleged expropriation of sovereign assets. Why not? And they might find other pretexts. So that will entail image-related losses and direct financial monetary losses related to the contemporary financial architecture. And the main thing is, no matter what they steal, sooner or later we'll have to give it back. And most importantly, we will go to courts to protect our interests. We will do our utmost to find a jurisdiction that will be independent from the political context. Let's come to the room and ask questions from the hall.
I'm from the Republic of Komi, a media outlet. And you know that a big chunk of the Republic of Komi, the Udora district, are cut off from the mainland. There is no direct automobile transportation and connection. So there's a dead end of the automobile road. But at the same time, the car trunk road spanning more than 600 kilometers going through our republic provides for the all-year-round procurement for the north and safe traffic for the northern residents. But the bulk of that segment, the biggest part of this segment, is in a very deplorable state and we lack regional funds to repair this road. And Komi has very, very few federal roads unlike other regions of Russia. So the proposal: whether this road of life, the only trunk way for the north, can be transferred to the federal property so that the safe and secure communication with the north is safeguarded. And using this opportunity, I'd like to invite you to Republic of Komi. In 2029, the city of Ukhta will mark its 100th anniversary. Today it's the biggest guest center in the north of Russia. And shortly, Syktyvkar will mark 150 years thanks to your decree. And if you are able to come to the festivities, we will be so grateful. It's going to be a historic and landmark visit for us.
Well, thank you for the invitation. With respect to the road, I'm aware of this problem. Indeed, transferring segments of that trunk federal road to the federal level, as there is a task of raising all federal trunk roads to certain quality standards, and this is almost complete. And now we are tackling the original roads quality. But it can be broken down into several sub-issues: the northern procurement and the safety, traffic and road safety. So, I cannot promise that we're going to start right away tomorrow, but I'll talk to the government and we'll find a way to respond and react. But thank you for the invitation.
So, it's a combined format. It's a hybrid format. So we will ask questions. We'll receive questions from different sources. Channel One, the third row, this is our correspondent.
Super from war correspondent from Channel One. I have three questions, hope to be succinct. First is from the battlefield, drone operators. All of them thank you for the big number of the assault drones. Some of them can stop columns like Prince Vandal of Nog. But we actually like hexacopters, the Baba type. They are used actively in droves by Ukrainians. And we need those tools this time too because the sky is dominated by the drones and it's used to carry a bottle of water. So the guys are going to receive those. And the second question is from the operators. One of the guys in the trenches told me: a baby will be born shortly in my family. Will you miss the front line? I asked him yes I will. And he will miss the control of the UAVs actually. So we have lots of UAV operators and their number is increasing and they also want to continue doing that in peaceful life as being civilians. Will that come in handy? Will their experience and expertise come in handy? And the final question is from me. We work with a brigade of veterans who are knowledgeable for their underground operations, subterranean subway operations and others. But this brigade, despite all the merits, is called like a voluntary group in many reports of the Defense Ministry. If I may, will you please assign this brigade the name of Guards Brigade? The honorary name. Thank you.
I'll start with your final point. The brigade of veterans deserves the highest assessments and they are heroes. But it's not only about risking lives and going through a tube. The point is that they are meticulous and hairsplitting and responsible in preparing each operation of theirs. And a lot of preparations were done with all the driveways and procurement and exit points and entry points. These are heroes, no doubt, and this brigade deserves the highest assessments and should be granted the name of Guards Brigade. I agree with you. Secondly, the point that you started with, about control drones. We are lacking heavy UAVs and this is what the Defense Ministry and the defense industry are getting to grips with. And the Defense Minister personally has been looking into the matter and he has done a lot. And thanks to him, to a large extent, the situation with drones has considerably improved. And the guys on the contact line now feel that. And we'll keep supporting our contemporary inventors with a system of grants and support measures. And I'd like to thank our caring people and entrepreneurs. They have collected 83 billion rubles of donations and that was spent on different things, but to a large extent on drones. I must say directly and frankly, one shouldn't shy that we have become leaders. We still lack those heavy drones like Baba type, but with respect to the number of drones, we are ahead of our adversary on all the segments of the front line. This is an obvious fact, a hard fact. With respect to the civil life application, in order to confirm this leadership, well, this can be confirmed only if those items used in fighting will be applied in civilian and peaceful life. And it will also be used in the dual use of these items to improve the combat efficiency of our country. And all the delivery of mail and medicines and food will be conducted with the help of UAVs, like the airplane type or small copter-based ones. I'm speaking about the UAVs in general, airborne and seaborne, and we are making big headway in this respect and this will have the support of the government in future. Now with respect to the fighters on the front line that want to continue doing what they have been doing. Well, this is a peculiar thing because the point is that we continue a good rate of manning. And now we have a lot of volunteers that want to volunteer to the front, conclude contracts to join the army, and they volunteer to defend their motherland and the interests of our people. We just mentioned how the Ukrainian military treat the civilians. And a person told me: when we saw what they did to civilians, we just are impatient to move on and finish off this viper. They execute old people, elderly, and they use helicopters to target civilians. Actually, he might be shy because it's the first time that he ends up in such an audience. And more than 400,000, 446,000 people have enrolled concluding a contract. And the number of people who want to do service in this new branch of the army, the Unmanned Aerial Systems branch, is so big that the Defense Ministry has to open a call for that. And there are students, young ones, who take an academic leave to sign a contract and join the army and they participate. They are eager to participate in this competition and they want to participate as drone operators. So I can understand the person that you spoke to, but actually even those who come on leave, they continue participating in the fighting because the remote technology allows that.
And to follow up on the fighters topic, you said, Mr. President, that it's not a trendy phenomenon, but it's the obligation of the government. So, and we looked through a lot of applications. Paul and I looked through a lot of obligations and Gighat confirms that this year the number of applications from the fighters and their families is much lower than in the previous year or the penultimate year. So work is underway to assist them, to help them. Still some problems remaining related to delays and the search for them missing. Still a lot is done just in a matter of days. For example, Alex Gushin from the Love region wrote to us. He was gravely wounded two years ago and he wasn't able to receive a payment of a million because not all the documents were available. And finally this amount was credited and one of these days he used to receive the full amount. And the mother of a fallen hero from Boretsk said that his son lost his life last year and was posthumously decorated with a medal. But she could not receive this medal. And finally the volunteers looked into the matter and now the mother has received her son's decoration. And she tried to get it for a year and only after caring, attentive and thoughtful people attended to that was resolved. And just yesterday or the day before yesterday you said at the Defense Ministry collegium that there is still room for advancement. And now we'll have a look at a video from Christina from Noyabrsk.
Good afternoon. My name is Kristina. I'm a widow of a diseased, of a fallen serviceman. We live in the city of Noyabrsk and there are two kids left of four and six years of age. So the question is: currently I do not receive the pension of a fallen serviceman and other benefits. My husband lost his life in January 2024. On the 10th of December that year I received the death certificate. And a year passed since then and we're yet lacking the suspension. Can the timeline for consideration of these applications be expedited so that the pension on the grounds of a loss of the breadwinner is allotted on time?
Kristina, first of all, I want to apologize to you for this huge delay of the relevant services. And in your case, it is going to be resolved quickly. But the problem is in existence. And not long ago I had a meeting with Madame Tsivilova, Anna, who reported me on the work of the fund of defenders. And she's Deputy Defense Minister now. And she has told me that still the proper interaction between the Defense Ministry and the welfare unit of the government is not properly established and there is a lot of red tape. And documents are lost while being transferred from one agency to another and decisions are delayed and postponed. But we will work on that to expedite the thing. I will definitely keep track of that personally. I'll look into this issue. We should be swifter and quicker so that we rid people of additional difficulties like in your case when they have two kids left after the tragedy. But there's also another issue pending which is obvious from some of the questions received via various channels. And Mr. Peskov has handed me a file full of such questions and applications. The search for the missing servicemen. And in the case of Kristina, I hope the problem she's faced with is going to be resolved quite quickly without any procrastination. Now, as for the search for missing in action, this is a topic of particular relevance. And I have to tell you that the Ministry of Defense has taken several steps with a view to addressing this problem. To be more precise, a coordinated center has been set up which is charged with searching for the servicemen missing in action. Special units have been established in relevant units and groups. A special registry has been set up as well. And if we look at the beginning of the year and at how things stand today, we'll see that the number of those who were thought to be missing in action has decreased by 50% as compared to the beginning of the year. So there is a three-time difference. Of course, this work has to continue and it has to be improved. Rest assured, we'll do everything to make sure that the losses are brought down to a minimum.
Mr. President, the issue of MIA is very important. I know that even among our colleagues, journalists, there are family, close friends who were participating in the SMO and who were considered to be MIA. I think everyone will support you if we ask you to give an instruction to make sure that there is a special control, special surveillance of the issues from family. We have to remember about the issue of those who are missing in action and those who have been taken prisoner.
Well, the instructions are there and we're working together with the Ministry of Defense. Let's work with the audience. A couple of questions, several questions from the room from the audience. Third row of this section, I think the M-TV company. Yes, the blazing red.
Thank you, Mr. Peskov. Good afternoon, Mr. President. Dashkava, M-TV channel. The issue of phone scammers is very acute. What about the measures taken by the government? Have they worked? Do you have any statistics on how we've managed to bring down the number of citizens who have been defrauded by these fraudsters?
Yes, we've got some statistics. These measures have worked. They've yielded some results and I think a lot has and should be done to address this issue. The number of such crimes has decreased by 7% as the Ministry of the Interior has briefed me, and the losses have decreased by 33%. On the whole, there are some positive results. But I would like to address the citizens of the country. Fraud is still very much an issue. And the more sophisticated our devices are getting, the more sophisticated our life is becoming. Scammers are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their turn in the ways they use to defraud the citizens and to swindle them and take their money. So whoever talks to you, whoever is calling you, and given the AI capabilities, if someone starts talking to you about money, about property, just put down the phone. Just put down the phone right away. If someone is talking to you about property or money, not a single word. If banks, or someone you know personally, if you want to address an issue, just go in person, see someone from the bank. I would like to ask you not to talk about money or property on the phone.
More questions from the room. I would like to ask the journalists to be as succinct as possible. Is we see a young man here, young gentleman, you know, children's editorial office.
Good afternoon, Mr. President. My name is Maxim Zakharov. I'm with the children's editorial office. Recently you said that sometimes you drive a car across Moscow streets incognito. And when you speak at meetings or right now, you are in possession of a wealth of information. I'd like to ask you how you get this information about what people really need.
Well, I didn't say that exactly like that, that I drive incognito, that I drive myself. I'm just saying that sometimes I drive without the accompanying police cars and all that. You know, these are useful.
Well, yes, I've just said that there are several measures of support for student families. Just have a look at those. But you know, when a young man thinks you have to buy this and that, you have to live somewhere, there are many issues to be addressed. But best not to postpone such a fundamental matter as making a family, having children.
That sector, you know, I see. Is it okay, Mr. President? Yeah, sure.
Good afternoon. Konstantin says that you've spoken about attempts at crushing Russia's economy, but I can't help asking about the unmanned vessels strikes by Ukrainians against vessels. You know, apart from critical energy infrastructure, there are attempts to strike Russia's export vessels. Several people have spoken up on that. In particular, leader of Turkey, President Erdogan, a woman sitting next to me, she spoke about that just a couple of days ago. There was a strike against a vessel in the Black Sea, in the Mediterranean Sea. There were several victims, several people dead. And should there be able to counter if that occurs to someone in Europe, what's going to be done?
Well, let's start with the last part of the question. Let's hope this will not happen. But if similar threats arise, we will eliminate those threats and everyone needs to understand that such actions will simply bring about a never-before-seen escalation that would escalate this conflict to an unprecedented level and expand it to a large-scale military conflict. Everyone needs to understand that. As far as strikes against our civilian infrastructure are concerned, you represent a media that deals with the military. You are well aware that these strikes are something we respond to, carrying out strikes that in terms of their scale and power are simply far superior to what the Kyiv authorities are doing. But as far as damages are concerned to civilian infrastructure, to non-combatants, well that is something that is deserving of strictest condemnation and we will always respond. We are receiving news that another oil tanker has been attacked in the Mediterranean. Yes, you know, they're pursuing some utilitarian purposes. They want to raise insurance premiums, but this will not bring about the result they are desirous of. This is not going to disrupt the supplies. This would only create additional threats and Russia is certainly going to respond.
Good afternoon, Mr. President. Thank you for this opportunity to ask you a question. First, let me give you the greetings from the population of Republic of Bashkortostan. We would like to thank you for the attention you are paying to our region. Right now, Tajikistan is building a Russia-Tajik industrial park on the Russian side. This project is operated by Bashkortostan. So my question is as follows: what other friendly nations can give a venue to similar projects where Bashkortostan's example can prove to be useful? Thank you.
Well, we've been building a similar infrastructure in Egypt for some time in the Nile area. There's a very good site there and our colleagues from the Ministry of Trade and Industry and our counterparts in Egypt are paying a great deal of attention to developing this site. I think this is something that should bring about very good and positive economic results both for Russia and for Egypt. There are a number of other projects we're contemplating in other partner nations. Your experience will certainly be used. I do not know what is the current state of this industrial park in Tajikistan, but I'm confident that given its well-developed technological and industrial base, Bashkortostan is going to play a pivotal role and will achieve all the tasks that it set before itself. And I'll ask the government to provide you with the requisite support should that prove to be necessary. Yes.
Please. Well, if there's too much noise, we'll have to bring this to an end because it's not going to be possible to communicate with one another. Kokoshnik. Okay, let's see what this Kokoshnik is about. Kokoshnik is something women wear.
Good afternoon, Mr. President. Sorry, I'm very, very nervous. I didn't know, you know, there's a young man with this card which says Kokoshnik, but you are wearing one. So yes, women first. I would like to pick up where my colleague from the first row has asked. This is about you driving through Moscow without any external aids as it were. So do you think Moscow has been beautified, has become better? You know, because many roads have been built, the Moscow diameters have been built. So do you think there are fewer traffic jams? And secondly, what's going to happen to cars in the future? Will we all have to change our cars for Russian-built cars? I've been saving up for foreign brands. I've spent five years and right now after the utilization fee has been introduced, I will have to spend another five or six years to save some money for a new car. So, what do you think?
Let's start with the utilization fee. Well, let's be upfront what this is about. The increase of the utilization fee as well as rising prices. Well, we're certainly talking about strong cars of more than 160 horsepower. The government fully understands that it mostly concerns citizens with the middle level or very high level of income in big cities most of all. And it's clear, and we've got to be clear about that right now. This is due to the attempt by the Finance Ministry to secure another source of income for achieving a very noble, lofty task that is technological development, technological sovereignty. And it certainly helps our car industry. You said well, probably foreign cars are becoming increasingly expensive. Probably we should contemplate buying Russian cars. Well, I can't help recommending some Russian car. It would be very strange for me to suggest to you that you should buy something built abroad. But I do hope this measure is not going to stay in effect forever and that the choice our citizens have access to will get wider, either as our incomes grow or as the fiscal burden decreases. Moscow. Well, yes, we're all proud of Moscow and rightly so. Sobyanin is demonstrating huge results. Well, I think it's 12 million people who live here permanently plus another 3 million of those who visit Moscow on a regular basis because they work here. So 15 million people, that's what Moscow is home to on a daily basis. And of course the issue of transport, this is a task that has been addressed in a systemic manner. It applies to underground, to conjunctions. Sobyanin's team is succeeding in addressing the tasks in this field. Of course, there are some issues that still persist. And when I drive across Moscow, I say that, you know, I drive without a motorcade. Well, that doesn't mean that there is no siren, but sometimes we turn off those sirens before work and after. Of course, there's still a huge flow of cars, especially at the center of Moscow. There is a great number of cars driving across Moscow's streets. That means that we should not rest on our laurels. A lot has been done, but we have to keep this issue under constant control.
Mr. President, we've spoken about those who are suffering from diabetes. Since there's no communication, it's impossible to surveil the level of sugar in the blood. But there is also a problem with medicines. Yes, why I've seen that this is but a fraction of what we have selected. There are people who suffer from cancer, from kidney failure or high blood pressure, epilepsy. So this is not an exhaustive list. Dmitry from Rybinsk.
Good afternoon, Mr. President. City of Nizhny Novgorod right now. No more preferential deliveries of medicines are carried out in Christ. This has been a regular occurrence since October. The clinics explained to us that they've run out of funding. As Zhvanetsky used to say, there's never been anything like this before. There we are again. So I'd like to ask you to give instructions to the officials to provide our citizens with medicines under the special preferential program.
Yes, indeed, there are many messages like that. I read them before coming here yesterday and the day before yesterday. And I spoke to the government and to the relevant ministries and they assured me that everything that is within the remit of the federal ministries and the medical insurance system, all of the funds have been wired to the regions that have no delays whatsoever. Whereas you're asking me this question and I've certainly seen similar messages. Peskov has given me a whole pile of such things. So this is about how this is organized on the ground in the regions of Russia. This is about the logistics. This is about timely decisions that are required to enter into contracts on the delivery and on the distribution of these medicines throughout the networks of pharmacies. I can promise you that we will have a look into what is happening over there in Nizhny Novgorod and I hope this issue is going to be fixed. But on the whole, you know, there are also concerns that state-run pharmacies are shutting down and this is a sort of concern. And that means that medicines at lower prices, at subsidized prices, are not being available. But I can tell you that even in private pharmacies, there have to be subsidized medicines available and they have to be available at fixed prices. And this is very important. I would like to ask the competent units of the Healthcare Ministry to follow that closely and to keep tabs on that. Moreover, we have to pay greater attention to developing pharmacy networks through the so-called mobile pharmacies, a practice that is becoming increasingly widespread across the provinces. There are also other spots where certain medicines can be made available and can be sold. This is part of the problem. And of course we can do that through the Post of Russia. So on the whole, we have an understanding of how to address these issues, but we have to translate those theories into practice. And in your particular case, I think we'll be able to fix that pretty quickly. Let's work with the audience.
First the person with the PLA SSSR and then K with TF1. Good afternoon, Mr. President. Good afternoon. Can I give a present to you and then a couple of questions?
Well, just explain to us what this is and we'll take that from you afterwards.
This is a book which is called Heart of Asia. It's 126 Russian poets who have been praising Persia and Tajikistan. And you know, there is a dedication here to you starting from Zhukovsky, 1843, and until present days. This is an anthology of best poems by Russian poets who have been praising Persia. And you love that. I know that. Next question. Please, Mr. President, tell me, you really appreciate poetry. We are descendants of those people in Persia. Could we ask you, Mr. President, to create a monument to honor these great scientists or a scientific center in the name of this?
This is a good idea. Thank you very much. We will think about this. Thank you. Thank you for this insight.
As it is to say, TF1 please. Our French colleagues, please. French TV.
Mr. President, one of my compatriots, the Frenchman Laurent Vinatier, has been put in jail for three years for an administrative offense. Now, the Russian justice system is raising the issue of espionage, which worsens the situation. Please, could you repeat the name of the person? And who is that? I have never heard about him.
He was a researcher in Russia and he wasn't registered as a foreign agent. He didn't know that the law changed. Well, he was put in jail for three years for this administrative offense. His parents and children are deeply worried right now. We know there are huge tensions between France and Russia. But as the new year approaches, can his family hope for a presidential pardon or an exchange and his return to France? Thank you.
You know, I know nothing about this case. This is the first time I hear it. But I promise you that I will try to find out the information about this and if there is any chance to solve this issue in a positive way, if Russian legislation allows to do that, we'll take all the necessary efforts to do that. But I cannot give you any specifics because I don't know anything about this. But I will get information about this and I promise you that. Please let's continue.
I hear someone with a TV mobile screen. Please introduce yourself.
Hello, Mr. President. My name is Valentin. I'm a techno blogger. I've been speaking to my audience for 15 years about Russian and foreign technologies. I represent many people because many people follow my networks. We're working actively on import substitution, the creation of the technological sovereignty of our country. One of the most meaningful events this year was the introduction of the national messenger, Max. There is a market of messengers and there are many messengers that have been used by people. So my question is the following one: the creation of the national messenger, was that important and was that necessary? Can Max messenger truly be competitive compared to other messengers? And what do you think about such competition? As a blogger, I would like to ask you to follow my channel on Max Technologies. I know that you know a lot in this topic. And I have remembered that today is my father's birthday, the 19th of December. I would like to use this opportunity to congratulate all the people that have a birthday today. There are hundreds of people and we echo your congratulation to your father.
As for the Max messenger and the competition, we always need competition. I'm sure that there will be competition. As for Telegram and other messengers, there is just one issue: complying with the Russian legislation. The problem of these messaging applications is that the leadership of the countries where they were created were introducing restrictions not allowing them to comply with our legislation. This led to the slowdown of such applications. Well, you know it. I'm sure that Max is also going to be competitive. Was it necessary? Of course it was. I would like to point out that in general, we had all the technological instruments apart from a messaging application. And it is truly important that Russia has reached full technological sovereignty. Russia is one of the three countries that has such sovereignty. First is the US, then China, and now it is Russia. Besides, there are several services that can be provided to our citizens through the Max national system. Such services could not be provided using foreign systems, first of all due to security reasons. This is a necessary step and I agree with you that there should be competition.
We have received many questions about healthcare through the Max application and many of the issues were solved even before the direct line. Around 500,000 questions were received from the Max application, many from the youth and the children. When we live almost in the 19th century, when are you going to listen to the people? Please, could you take a note of this? We need to understand what this is about. The text messages. Yes, we should stop speaking about Ukraine. We should solve our own problems. Speak about our own problems.
I absolutely agree with you.
Well, there are several videos from the youth and from children, Mr. President.
Hello, my name is Daniil and I'm at the international literature forum. There are many adults and I would like to ask you about the trend of books being read by the youth and by children. Usually kids prefer very short videos. What should we do about that? Is there a book that according to you every Russian citizen should read? Thank you.
Unfortunately, the reduction in the reading of books is a problem all over the world. Some time ago, we were proud that the USSR was the country where people read the most. Right now, there are many people that read books. But unfortunately, as I said, all over the world the number of people that read books is reducing. What should we do about that? First of all, it depends on school, on family, parents. We need to pay more attention with this regard to children. We need to maintain competition with tablets and modern technological means. I'm speaking about parents maintaining this competition with these technological means because this is very accessible and this is very interesting. And we need to find a way to make books interesting for children. If we are creative about this, it is possible even if it's complex. I've already mentioned it once, but I would like to say once again. I've spoken to a priest and I asked him: when people die, what do they say mostly? You know, what was the answer? They say that they paid not enough attention to children. I don't want to personify anything. It's nothing specific. This is not a secret. But this was the overall message and it regards everything: education, providing some guiding principles, values. This young boy asked me about a book that everyone should read. Well, the world literature, Russian literature, classics, modern literature. There are many topics to be discussed that are very useful. But the main thing is that the book should create the conscience, the idea of the world. But it's very hard for me to name a specific book.
Another question that we received through Max from Natasha, Nadezhda. What are your working hours? What is the license plate of your car?
Actually, I don't know if there is a plate. Actually, I just take it and go somewhere. As for the working hours, well, I keep late hours and sometimes it's getting even later. Well, I'm not going to say because it is a violation of our labor code and this is not correct. You need to be fit. You need to go to bed on time. And I call everyone to such a regime of work.
A question from Victoria. It's to you and to Pavel. Let's watch it.
Mr. President, hello. My name is Victoria. I really fight for what Pavel Rubin does. When Pavel will go to pension, I will take over and please be the president till that time and I will work with you and cover your work. I would like to congratulate you on the New Year and wish you good health and always make right decisions. Victoria.
Thank you very much. I congratulate you on the New Year as well and I wish you all the best, success in school, and wish you have reliable friends by your side. Well, let's keep Pavel for some time. He's quite a young man. I'll ask Pavel, I'm sure he will agree to take you for training. I'm sure he can do a lot of good things. He's quite young. And when I go into a well-deserved rest and you will be trained by Pavel, it will help you to become a journalist at the university and you will work together with Pavel even at the federal level. This is what we're truly going to do. But still, I'm not pensioned right now.
I'll keep asking questions. So what is really important for every one of us? Recently you have spoken about the opportunities and the threats of the artificial intelligence. You can solve any task without even thinking using your mind. Another message from Max Messenger. What can be the balance between the modern technologies and the tasks of developing intelligence in children? Thank you. Please, we will be grateful for your answer and please come for the first of September 2026 to the opening of our school.
This is a relevant issue, very complex regarding the problem itself. There's a great volume of information. There are new instruments of solving tasks today. You can use the capacities of artificial intelligence. In fact, danger appears that teenagers, students will not try to find the decisions themselves. But as Pavel said, they will just press a button and receive the necessary answer. This is a complex task. So it will depend on the organization of the education process in schools and in universities, in all the educational institutions. It means this is how we should organize the education process so that all of this was done and the tasks were solved at schools, in classrooms. So the tasks were posed in the classroom before the students and pupils and they were solved by a specific student or pupils so that they need to use their brain, so that they would think. So that the development of new technologies would make that part of our society, part of our population would be thinking about what they're doing and the other part would follow a very simple path, would use technologies, press correct buttons, that would degrade from the intellectual point of view. This is something that we should avoid and this is the task of the education system as well as the task for families. Well, I have nothing to add to that. Let's return to the audience. Spas, please.
Oh, forgive me. It's very important for us to be channel. Thank you for recognizing the Satanist movement as an extremist one. There are still occult services, esoterics that are provided in our country. You can see them in social networks, in books. There are tarot cards.
been sold in shops and last year people spent more than 2.3 trillion rubles on such services. This TV channel made a movie about the magicians and sorcerers. When we spoke about many true stories and about this business, but still people keep going to sorcerers. Is it possible to introduce a ban on magical and occult advertisement that contradict your decree on the preservation of our traditions and values and the decision of the Supreme Court on the prohibition of the Satanist movement?
As for the legislation, the decisions of the Supreme Court and the Constitution Court, everyone must follow them. I will have a look at it without any doubt and I will instruct the relevant agencies to follow this up closely to avoid the violations at the highest legislative level and the level of court decisions. I truly agree with you. Satanism and cult services, sorceries, this is nonsense. That is something that confuses people, brings them to darkness and affects them greatly. It affects their psyche, their morale, and we need to fight against it but do it carefully without violating human rights. Your colleagues have mentioned it as well. We shouldn't be excessive about these restrictions. We need an analysis and timely decisions. This is what we're going to do together with you, the representatives of the media like your media, the representatives of our traditional religions as well as with the Russian Orthodox Church.
taking lots of questions from this sector. I can see Auto Radio. Mr. Putin, a question to you.
It's considered to believe that the generation of '90s was lost for the nation. What about the current generation? Do you feel the support coming from the young ones?
You know, I cannot agree with the statement that this was a lost generation for this country. The issue of fathers and sons is an eternal one. And you know the well-known novel titled Fathers and Sons. At all times everybody keeps saying that when we were young, things were different. After I graduated from the university, I was recruited by the special services and I joined the external intelligence service of the USSR. One of the tests there was putting people in dangerous, risky, stressful situations so that they could manifest themselves. In critical situations, people show their true worth. And now we live in the context of a special military operation. We have 700,000 people in the fighting area, mostly young ones. Many of them are from that generation of the 1990s. How are they showing themselves?
Well, these are the children of the 1990s and they are heroes. They are the backbone and you can take them as a model. So this is the answer with respect to the young generation. Yesterday we analyzed the huge array of inputs that were received and lots of questions were submitted by young ones, which means they have a more active position than previous generations. And I can see a person in a gray sweater.
Good afternoon. Media 73 point. The question is about transportation, aviation and public transport next year. A factory turns 50 years old. It turned out 120 for Russian jumbo jets and now it works on a new contemporary make of airplane. Do we need a modern cargo aircraft similar to that? My second question is about public transport. It's a huge problem and we discussed this issue with the governor. Will there be any specific support for the public transport system and procurement with the help of the federal government?
We have a program in place to provide for the procurement of public transport for different regions and that was always viewed as a way of supporting our automobile industry. We'll discuss that with the governor. I cannot answer this question right now. Rest assured, if need be, we will provide necessary support. The aircraft construction factory is a very relevant and acute issue, quite important for us. We have a very good and long-standing tradition in aircraft construction both in the military and civilian sectors. Historically, our civil aviation and aircraft manufacturing always followed defense hardware and equipment. The performance of these aircraft differs, but we always took pride in our Yakovlev and Ilyushin makes. What we need now are our state-of-the-art modern homemade aircraft. The growth of air ticket prices is due to the shortage of aircraft. Those international manufacturers that used to supply us decided to quit cooperation because of some political reasons. That is bad for them because it subverts their reputation, but this is good for us because it makes us work harder and take advantage of our market. In the past, I spoke with the deputy prime minister and told him it was necessary to buy more domestically made aircraft. Now we have come up with the MS-21 that we are rolling out. It is a very good machine, perfectly suitable for international markets, and the Superjet 100 is another make. We need our own regional aircraft, and jumbo jets similar to the Il-76 will be modernized. This is high-tech manufacturing requiring long production chains and profound cooperation. There are some additional pending issues, but we will handle that and wish the enterprise all the best.
Mr. President, we are approaching the four-hour threshold. Let's give the floor to Mr. Pis. We are now nearing the four hours of live broadcast and it's kind of a record-setting time. So I suggest we round off and wind up. There will be just a quick set of quick-fire questions.
In hundreds of years, school children will open a time capsule. What message would you leave to describe or depict our era?
Well, I think all of us think about the future of our children and grandchildren and the future of our country. I also do. I know what I should be telling, probably several things. Well, I'll try my best. Living in Russia in this incessant, infinite flux of time in the 20th and 21st centuries, we received everything done by our predecessors with gratitude. We lived as everybody at all times with our routine needs. But we were not at a standstill. We made headway. We struggled. We worked. We fought and we tried to resolve the issues that our time set before us. And we thought about you. If you are holding our message right now, that means that you also feel yourselves being part of our joint, shared, infinite flux of time. And you are aware of the connection of times, and this is very important. Congratulations. That means that we did not leave our lives in vain and we succeeded in many respects. We wish you to be blessed with luck always and be happy, and your kids and grandchildren be proud of you as we are proud of our fathers and grandfathers.
Mr. President, are you collecting information or material for future memoirs as other world leaders do?
I just think that one should keep working because memoirs would assess those who write them. If people consider it appropriate, let them assess me and my work and the work of my team and all the people that are behind me.
You've been telling about the achievements of the country. What about your personal achievements?
My personal achievements are inseparable from the achievements of this country. This is what I live by. I work day and night.
Have you ever in your life sent a message via messenger? Have you done a video circle and sent it to your nearest and dearest?
So I saw your flat at the Kremlin. It's quite bad. An empty fridge, just one dairy drink. Where is coziness?
All that was designed by the previous head of operations under President Yeltsin and no repair has happened since. That was designed to provide opportunity for rest and recreation in the daytime. I doubt President Yeltsin spent nights there, but I live there. This is just a coincidence of circumstances. I am satisfied with everything. And comfort and coziness are created by people. When my family members appear there, I feel cozy.
Do you have any professional deformations or personal distortions?
Well, yes, as any other man fully submerged in work.
Which moment of this year do you remember in the first place and which would you like to forget?
Well, with respect to which I memorized in the first place, it is very hard to say, but I think that the new year that we celebrated last time happened two or three weeks ago and this is not an overstatement. Everything is so compressed. We have had many positive developments. At the Defense Ministry Collegium meeting, I spoke about the development of our armed forces that have become the most combat-effective in the world given the advances in strategic arms that we have had. These are major landmarks in the life of our country. And we have been able to preserve the resilience of our economy. These are positive developments without a doubt. Speaking about what I'd like to forget, I have my own view. If you want to forget something, it means there was a failure or you did something badly. You should not forget that, you should rectify your mistakes and make conclusions.
Which trait of your character do you dislike?
Well, listen. People just wonder. I'll try to respond. My life is absolutely conspicuous in front of the cameras, and speaking about what I like and dislike in myself would give rise to rumors and idle talk.
Do you have a true friend?
What is true friendship? It's a matter of notions. In the first instance, true friendship means mercilessness. In my situation, some people around me are tempted to try to take advantage of that. I can state that those whom I believe to be my friends are very reserved, and I am not ashamed of them.
What motivates you and makes you move forward, and what keeps you in high spirits?
What motivates me is the trust of people. Some things sound jarring and others are inspiring and motivating. The confidence in the future of Russia is what prevents me from losing heart.
What is the best thing for a boy age 13? Excellent studies or love of motherland or anything else?
Well, he should love his mother first of all, and this is not an irony. I once again would turn to Nadezhda. He didn't speak up. I will say everything for him. We had a discussion the day before yesterday when I invited him to the Kremlin. I asked him, 'What would you like?' And he responded, 'My mom is elderly and has some health conditions. Will you please help my mother?' Such an attitude towards one's mother is not merely an attitude of one person to another; it's a mindset. People with this attitude become heroes of Russia.
And what about love at first sight? Does such a thing exist?
Where does motherland start for you personally?
Well, it starts with my parents.
Man certainly needs to believe in something. What do you believe in?
God Almighty, who is with us and who never forsakes Russia.
The number of messages has exceeded 3 million, which is unprecedented. So the last question: what will Russia look like in 200 years? Will it even exist?
Well, 200 years. I don't know how it happened, but you've asked me to project a message hundreds of years into the future, which is very hard to forecast given the growing technological component, the increased influence of AI, our accomplishments in genetics and biotechnologies. It's impossible to forecast how human consciousness will evolve or whether borders will exist hundreds of years hence. So it's a message from us to our descendants. I tried to do that based on how things stand right now. As for what will happen in 200 years, 200 years ago, the Bolshoi Theater is celebrating its 250th anniversary. For Russia, 200 years is not that big of a time stretch. I'm hopeful that the country will be highly educated, and this high level of education will serve as a foundation for high technological development. With the help of these technologies, the country will be capable of addressing all the tasks in front of us, in the economy, healthcare, and social policies. It will be living in peace and prosperity, having built ties with other countries on the basis of mutual respect.
Thank you. Well, yes, just a moment, I promise this is not the end. Well, please, let's go sector by sector.
What's that? Mr. President, my name is Anna. I'm from Yakutia. Yakutia is translated as 'it's cold.' We know Yakutia is a cold place, but we have very warm hearts and you know that better than anyone. So my question to you is as follows. Mr. President, I'm terribly nervous. I've been waiting for this chance. In the Arctic in Yakutia, the electricity tariff for hospitals, schools, and other facilities has grown 10 times over the last four years, from five to 50 rubles per kilowatt hour, which is an enormous burden given that efficiency is not growing at all. Unfortunately, there is a high level of incidence, and in the Arctic an accident is almost a catastrophe. So is it possible to have a special allowance for us, what used to be in place in the Russian high north and the far east? You've been to Yakutia. Maybe you'll come to Yakutia in winter, and with due respect, we'd like to interview you. If you come, I'll be happy to be the one interviewing you.
Thank you for your words of appreciation. Regarding the special allowance, we will take that into account. Your economy is growing and requires an increasing volume of electricity at competitive prices. Coal-based generation is developing, but other sources can be contemplated as well. We are doing work in settlements and cities where the requisite infrastructure has to be set up. We know the problem and we will look into it. We will work on green sources of energy without forgetting gas-based generation or oil-based generation. We will increase the capacity of the grid. We will keep Yakutia in mind because it is a treasure trove of mineral wealth which still awaits extraction. I've jotted it down, we will look into that.
Good afternoon, Mr. President. 360 TV channel, Regina. You've spoken about AI today and said you will not allow Russia's dependence on foreign neural networks. Does that mean ChatGPT and other foreign networks will be prohibited? Is there going to be a special type of regulation in this field? And second question, if you allow, you said love at first sight exists. Mr. President, are you in love?
Yes, I am. That's the answer to the second part of your question. Concerning the first part, we are not going to prohibit anything. There is Russian legislation. If there are violations, restrictions are put in place, but we are not going to introduce any bans to please anyone.
Good afternoon. Tomsk is Russia's youth capital. I'd like to use this moment. You have not yet voted for our city. Please vote because every seventh person living in Tomsk is a student. So a round of applause for Tomsk, please. Have you voted, Mr. President, if that's no secret?
Well, even though we have lots of young people, we lack blue-collar workers. We lack locksmiths, drivers, and other blue-collar jobs. Mr. President, is the government doing anything to rebuild the prestige of blue-collar work? And what about AI? Maybe we don't need drivers because AI will supplant them.
Well, I am offended by your question because I think we are working systemically on preparing highly qualified workers. This is done in a systemic fashion. The worker profession is becoming very prestigious, increasingly complicated and sophisticated. That's why you can get that training in vocational schools. We also have specialized education. We will hold competitions, increase the quality of education, and fuel internships with education. We will engage businesses; they are the ones most interested in young professionals. A whole set of measures is in place, and we will expand them.
Unfortunately, we are getting breaking news. This is very important. One of those who is here is reporting that the girlfriend of Kir Bajan has agreed to your proposal. She'll marry you.
About the material component of life. Well, of course it's important. It's the right thing to do for the gentleman. He is the one supposed to contribute to addressing these material needs. We will take a hat and do some collection for your wedding.
Another Ukraine. There's another question. We've covered Ukraine, but we have not yet covered 'Another Ukraine.' Good afternoon, Mr. President. 'Another Ukraine' is a network movement. My question is about Ukraine because it applies directly to our motherland, Russia. Trump has said that Zelenskyy is using war to avoid elections. Zelenskyy said he is ready to hold elections in 60 or 90 days, which is a cynical lie because Zelenskyy has destroyed his country. He chose arbitrariness and violence over democracy. Mr. President, you said a referendum has to be held on the recognition of new territories as per the Ukrainian constitution. How can a referendum be held in a country where the criminal regime has destroyed democracy? For a referendum to be held, constitutional order must be reestablished. The ban on 18 parties must be lifted. A law must be introduced to stop the prosecution of those who spoke against the coup. An amnesty was adopted after 2014 which basically protected those who initiated the coup. Electoral law must be reestablished. Half of the Ukrainian population has fled from Zelenskyy. That's 18 million people. Where are they supposed to vote? Sanctions must be lifted against Ukrainian citizens and the revocation of citizenship against those who disagreed with the neo-Nazi policy. Media must resume their activity. Without these measures, a referendum would mean legitimizing the criminal regime. In March this year, you proposed temporary governance in Ukraine under the auspices of the UN, Russia, the US, and European countries. Do you still stick to that proposal? And if no environment is created for elections, will you recognize their legitimacy?
This is not a question, it's more of a political statement. I'll try to be brief. Regarding elections in Ukraine and international temporary governance, yes, I suggested that, but it was only hypothetical. If the will were there on the side of Western countries, given the corruption scandals, it could be considered. As for elections, we hear statements from the regime about elections. Western countries must ensure security. I would like to draw attention to the following: Russia held elections, both presidential and regional. Who ensured security during those elections? There were attempts to sabotage them. In the Donetsk People's Republic, people were queuing at polling stations and shelling started. They went to shelters and when it was over, they came back and cast their ballots. Ukraine could do the same if they truly wanted. If they want to use elections to stop Russia's advancement on the battlefield, they are wrong. We are willing to think about how to ensure security during elections in Ukraine. We could refrain from strikes on election day. There is a nuance: in Russia, there are millions of Ukrainian citizens, from 5 to 10 million. If elections were held, those Ukrainians in Russia must have the right to vote. Other nuances must be studied. I agree that the authorities in Ukraine must become legitimate, and that is impossible without elections.
Mr. President, good afternoon. My name is Denis Shaluta. I'm a blogger from Siberia. I cover social and economic news and the development of Siberia. Since October, there are rumors about the establishment of a cluster for deep processing of rare earths and non-ferrous metals. Do you think this is the best solution to provide our economy with critical metals and to relaunch Russia's industrialization? The prospects are huge. Is there a will at the level of the government to complete this project?
This is a very interesting project. These plans were formulated back in Soviet times. This region is very promising. It has almost 360 sunny days. Even though it's in Siberia, the climate is very good and there are huge opportunities to extract and process minerals. The logistics is very good. This cannot be addressed through Gosplan and budgetary allocations. We need to make companies interested so they would invest, and the state would provide support. Such work is underway. I think it is very promising. We are finding investors and potential companies, and we need to support them with benefits and services, and create logistics and power sources. This could be a large-scale historical task. We will keep working on it.
Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to ask a question. Mr. President, you have said that Russian culture is the backbone. It's important to preserve historical memory and cultural diversity. What cultural projects are a priority for you personally, and will Russia protect Russian-speaking people abroad? Will a program be created to specialize in fighting the information war waged against us by the West? And about the prestige of teachers.
Regarding the protection of compatriots, of course we will work on that. We need to do everything not to make the situation of our competitors even worse. We need to be careful without using aggressive means. Regarding training information warfare experts, it is not really combinable. We have such training as part of improving the armed forces, and we will continue it. We need to introduce modern instruments that are effective and accessible for consumers. As for cultural projects, there are many. I would not like to give specific projects because it creates unhealthy competition. But there are such projects and we will support them.
Hello. The poster was held by a young man because I was really tired. I'm from the Republic of Tatarstan. My colleague from Kazan already asked a question. Thank you for the M12 highway. It's easy to travel from Moscow to Kazan with family. But we always want more. There is a proposal for a high-speed railway. Is there any chance our children will use it?
Are you speaking about the high-speed railway? Yes, we are already working on the design for the St. Petersburg-Moscow railway, and we are also going to implement the Moscow-Kazan project. Thank you for our joint work.
Mr. Putin, there is important news from Brussels. There was a failure to take our assets. They cannot steal them, but they are trying.
'Stealing' is not the correct definition. Stealing is when someone does it secretly. They are doing it openly. This is robbery. Why they failed? Because the consequences can be harsh for the robbers. They declare they are not going to rob it, but to take it as a credit using our assets. But you cannot just give out a loan. This will increase the budget debt of every country. For example, in France the public debt is 120% and ours is at 17%. Our budget deficit is 2.6%, next year it will be 1.6%. In France it is 6%. They will assume additional liabilities and it will be hard to pass such a budget. These are the reasons for the difficulty. There will be graver consequences for those who endeavor that. It will subvert confidence in the Euro area. Many countries store their foreign reserves in the Euro zone. If they see what might happen, they will have doubts. If this happens, it can be replicated. They might think that now they dislike the special military operation, and next someone might not like the fight against the LGBT movement. Muslim countries have stringent laws, and that might be another pretext for expropriation of assets. That will entail image and financial losses for the financial architecture. No matter what they steal, sooner or later we will have to get it back. We will go to courts to protect our interests.
Good day. I am from the Komi Republic. A big chunk of our republic is cut off from the mainland. There is no direct automobile transportation. A trunk road spanning more than 600 kilometers provides for the year-round procurement for the north, but the bulk of this segment is in a deplorable state and we lack regional funds to repair it. Can this road be transferred to federal property? And I would like to invite you to the Komi Republic for the 100th anniversary of the city of Ukhta and the 150th anniversary of Syktyvkar.
Thank you for the invitation. Regarding the road, I am aware of this problem. Transferring segments to the federal level can be done. There is a task of raising all federal trunk roads to certain quality standards. We are tackling the original roads' quality. I cannot promise we will start right away, but I will talk to the government and we will find a way to respond.
Mr. President, it's a combined format. We will ask questions from different sources. Channel One, the third row. This is our front correspondent.
I am a war correspondent from Channel One. I have three questions. First, from the battlefield drone operators: they thank you for the large number of assault drones, but they need hexacopters of the Baba type, which Ukrainians use actively. Will they receive those? Second, drone operators want to continue their work in civilian life. Will their experience come in handy? Third, a brigade of veterans known for subterranean operations is called a voluntary group in many ministry reports. Will you assign them the honorary name of a Guards brigade?
I'll start with your final point. The brigade of veterans deserves the highest assessments. They are heroes. They are meticulous and responsible in preparing each operation. They deserve to be granted the name of a Guards brigade. I agree with you. Secondly, regarding drones, we are lacking heavy UAVs, and the defense ministry is addressing this. The defense minister has done a lot, and the situation with drones has considerably improved. We will keep supporting contemporary inventors with grants and support measures. I thank our caring people and entrepreneurs who have collected 83 billion rubles in donations. We still lack heavy drones like the Baba type, but in terms of numbers, we are ahead of our adversary on all segments of the front line. Regarding civilian applications, this leadership can be confirmed only if those items used in fighting are applied in civilian life.
126 Russian poets have been praising Persia and Tajikistan. There is an anthology of the best poets from Zhukovsky in 1843 until the present day. Could we ask you to create a new monument to honor these great scientists?
This is a good idea, thank you very much. We will think about this. Thank you for this insight.
Our French colleagues, please. TF1 French TV.
Mr. President, the Frenchman Laurent Vinatier has been jailed for three years for an administrative offense. The Russian justice system is now raising the issue of a more severe charge, which worsens his situation.
Please could you repeat the name of the person? And who is that? I have never heard about him.
He was a researcher in Russia and he wasn't registered as a foreign agent. He didn't know that the law changed. Well, he was put in jail for three years for this administrative offense. His parents and children are deeply worried right now. We know there are huge tensions between France and Russia. But as the new year approaches, can his family hope for a presidential pardon or an exchange and his return to France?
Thank you.
You know, I know nothing about this case. This is the first time I hear it. But I promise you that I will try to find out the information about this and if there is any chance to solve this issue in a positive way, if Russian legislation allows to do that, we'll take all the necessary efforts to do that. But I cannot give you any specifics because I don't know anything about this, but I will get information about this. And I promise you that. Please, let's continue.
