Phone-in with Putin: No drinking, no smoking, no chewing during the broadcast

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Today, on October 25, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin held his annual nationally televised, question-and-answer broadcast. A REGNUM correspondent reports on how it was carried out in the Russian city of Irkutsk, where three local residents managed to ask Putin questions live. The questions concerned aviation, land issues and timber industry.

The territory of the spot, where Irkutsk residents gathered to participate in the live communication with Putin, had been thoroughly examined by people in uniform with dogs. An hour before the broadcast, all outsiders were asked to leave the square. Forty minutes before the event requirements became tougher: “Switch off your cell phones. No drinking, no smoking, no chewing during the broadcast. Put your rustling bags on a bench.” Those, who came just to wander and to have a look at the event, were not allowed to enter the square in 30 minutes before the start.

Fifteen minutes before the broadcast started, special police troops became concerned over a stand. The signboard on it said it was a food stand. But the police officers preferred not to believe it and opened it. There was a noise for a while, but it turned out the suspicions were groundless.

About a hundred Irkutsk residents were given a chance to ask the president a question. Three of them managed to do it, Irkutskoye Vremechko informs.