Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has no intention of giving up the traditional annual "live video links" with the people that started when he was President. Preparation for the next video link is already under way, mainly through the "public reception offices" of the Chairman of the United Russia Party in the regions.
Representatives at these offices select questions for Prime Minister Putin, but complaints are also fed into a single electronic base so that Mr Putin can at any moment know what topics are foremost in people's minds. The Prime Minister will answer some of the questions during the video link and, as before, people will be able to put questions to the Prime Minister during live links with the regions. Unlike previously, people will probably be able to talk with Mr Putin not while standing in the freezing cold, but from rooms in his public reception offices.
The exact date of the event is not yet known, but it is tentatively scheduled to take place after the United Russia Congress in November. The only thing that may disrupt the link is the deepening of the financial crisis, the party says. If the situation does not take a dramatic turn for the worse, the Prime Minister's conversation with the people will be a preventive measure of sorts.
It is still unknown whether the incumbent President Dmitry Medvedev will hold Putin-style grand press conferences and live video links, but the President has already introduced his own format of getting feedback from the citizens: he recently launched a video blog on his official site.