Vladimir Putin’s “Direct Line” Q&A session today
Today, 14 December, I watched a long segment of Vladimir Putin’s highly promoted annual “Direct Line” televised question and answer session delivered on all channels of state television to orbi et urbi.
The Russian president was seated at an elevated platform in a Moscow auditorium and responded to a sampling of questions from among the 2.5 million Russians who called in, who sent SMS and emails, as well as from among a mixed audience of ‘ordinary’ Russians and journalists, both foreign and domestic, including from ‘unfriendly states’ who had managed to procure seats. This year his customary end-of-year press conference was folded into the “Direct Line” exercise.
The show went on for four hours and four minutes. Putin responded to 67 questions with his only “technical aid” being a pencil and note pad on which he took down key words of multiple questions from a single person or jotted down their name and patronymic so as to respond with traditional Russian formality. There were no souffleurs to whisper answers into his ear or screens on the table for him to consult. And yet his answers to questions in every imaginable domain were detailed and knowledgeable. This was a performance that few if any global leaders could rival, and the audience was appreciative.
Did he say anything new or particularly noteworthy? My answer is a qualified ‘no.’ From the very outset, he remarked that he had answered the questions many times over in the recent past.
My impression is that he came to the Direct Line somewhat fatigued and for that reason his answers were more prolix than is customary. And yet, tired or not, he never lost his sense of humor. I think in particular of his answer to a pensioner in the South of Russia who complained that egg prices have doubled in the past year. Indeed, this issue has figured in the Russian news in the past several weeks and Putin explained that he had taken it up with the Minister of Agriculture, asking him “как ваши яйца?” meaning literally “how are your eggs?” To which, the answer came back: “все в порядке,” meaning “they are ok.” After which, Putin reproached him for the shortages and sharp price rises that people had written in to him about. The audience in the auditorium and, one may assume, at home before their television sets, lapped this up and broke into smiles, because ‘яйца' in the Russian vernacular is the equivalent of Madeleine Albright's 'cojones' or “balls” in rude English. The solution to the problem is being found by belatedly opening up the frontier to imports from Turkey, from Belarus and to other potential suppliers. However, I found Putin’s basic response, that Russian supply had simply not kept up with rising demand, to be unconvincing. Since the key cost element in raising chickens for eggs or for meat is grain, and since Russia is one of the key suppliers of grain globally, with a record 2023 harvest, it is hard to see why domestic poultry farmers did not respond to demand in a timely way.
The Q&A provided Putin with an opportunity to boast of Russia’s fine economic performance in 2023 which all European countries might well envy: GDP growth of 3.5%, unemployment at 2.9%, industrial production up 3.6%, processing manufacturing up 7.5%, company profits up 24%, banking sector profits of 3 trillion rubles, which attest to a solid banking system, nominal increase in salaries across the country of 18% and real pay rises of 8% after inflation. In this snapshot alone, Putin used the Direct Line in the way that BBC Moscow bureau chief Steve Rosenberg remarked, namely to promote his just announced electoral campaign for the presidency.
Western journalists commenting on the Direct Line have otherwise directed attention to Putin’s answer to a question about whether Russia’s objectives in the Special Military Operation in Ukraine have changed since the launch back in February 2022. He said that the objectives remain exactly the same, namely to keep to de-Nazify and to demilitarize the country. To a significant extent, the latter objective has already been realized given the way the Russian armed forces have destroyed a very large part of Ukraine’s original and then Western donated military equipment. He insisted that Russia will continue the war until Kiev capitulates.
On a related question which holds especial interest for the broad Russian public, Putin said there is at present no consideration being given to issuing a new mobilization order in 2024. The ranks of the Russian armed forces are being filled by volunteers under contract. So far 486,000 Russian men have signed up this year to serve in the war and it will go over the 500,000 mark by year’s end.
My own take-away from the Direct Line was in a very different domain, his response to a question relating to the war in Gaza. The questioner asked whether the United Nations has any usefulness given the inability of the Security Council to pass a resolution calling for a cessation of hostilities and massive delivery of humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians in Gaza. And, his add-on question was what Russia is trying to do about the war.
With respect to the United Nations, President Putin said there was nothing unusual in the present deadlock in the Security Council, which had occurred quite regularly during the days of the Cold War. And then it was USSR Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko who earned the sobriquet “Mister Nyet” because of the frequency with which Moscow exercised its right of veto. Moreover, the principle of obligatory consensus behind UN resolutions was consciously built into the institution by its founders. The task now is to find an actionable consensus.
As regards what Russia is doing to address what he called the tragedy in Gaza, Putin called attention to his recent visits to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to coordinate positions, as well as outreach to Egypt and to Turkey to formulate steps to an overall solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in terms of two sovereign states.
What was more interesting, though, was his remark that he had been in discussion with Benjamin Netanyahu to see if Russia would be permitted to open a field hospital in Gaza near the Rafah crossing in a stadium as the UAE had been allowed to do. Netanyahu rejected the idea because security could not be assured, meaning that Israel is continuing its savage attacks in every part of the Gaza Strip. Nonetheless, it appears they reached agreement on Russia’s sending in to Gaza large deliveries of medical supplies. This little story effectively explains what the two leaders had to discuss in their 50 minute phone conversation in the past week. And I had naively assumed that Putin was trying to apply maximum pressure on Netanyahu to wind down the attacks.
©Gilbert Doctorow, 2023