Maxim Glikin, Natalya Kostenko, Yevgeny Rakul, Yury Borisovsky
Live on air with the public
Tomorrow the leader of the United Russia party, Vladimir Putin, is going to hold a live question-and-answer session with the public, which is planned to last for at least two hours. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation is going to press for giving their leader as much airtime.
On Thursday afternoon Prime Minister Putin will hold a Q&A session with the public for the seventh time - now as prime minister and the leader of the United Russia party. The session will be broadcast live by the Rossiya and Vesti TV channels as well as radio stations Mayak, Vesti FM and Radio Rossii.
The "Conversation with Vladimir Putin" will last over two hours, with ten regions participating in a video link-up, the prime minister's press secretary Dmitry Peskov said. Those who want to ask questions will not have to freeze outdoors, another government official added: People will mainly gather in the prime minister's public reception offices as well as other designated areas (since public reception offices have been set up in regional capitals only). Earlier, video link-ups were supposed to be organised in seven regions, the winners of a special competition, but yesterday a source in United Russia said that Putin will announce the best public reception offices during the Q&A session.
Nina Dmitrieva, the head of a public reception office rented by United Russia from Rostov State Building University, looks forward to a video link-up. Interestingly enough, the public reception office premises of 200 square metres used to be occupied by the British Council. On Thursday all local United Russia leaders will gather here.
Putin will hold the Q&A session at Gostiny Dvor, where United Russia's three previous congresses took place. The audience will mostly consist of public reception office personnel. A source with the United Russia executive committee says that government members and party leaders have been invited to the Q&A session; TV presenter Maria Sittel will host the programme. You can find the most popular questions at www.moskva-putinu.ru, where all questions are collected and sorted out. Most questions deal with problems people face with getting housing and jobs, rather than politics.
The programme will not be interrupted by ads, the joint PR service of the three radio stations reports: Given the session's importance, an agreement with advertisers was reached for carrying over their commercials to other time slots. The Vesti TV channel will work in the same mode, according to its editor-in-chief Dmitry Mednikov. An employee of one of the state channels reminded that commercials are usually carried over on Victory Day, when the parade is broadcast.
According to Peskov, the programme will be broadcast at the expense of the National State Television and Radio Broadcasting Corporation, not the Government or United Russia: The broadcaster is interested in a project with such a high rating itself. According to TNS Gallup Media, on October 18, 2007 23.3% of Moscow's TV viewers watched the Q&A session broadcast by the Rossiya channel (the daily average rating of the Vesti news block is 16.1%).
Vadim Solovyov, the Communist Party's chief lawyer, pointed out that the law guarantees equal access to the media for all political parties. If United Russia does not pay for the broadcast, the Communists will apply to court to request equal airtime for Gennady Zyuganov.