Moscow, 14 December 2023 (dpa/MIA) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday is set to once again hold his marathon year-end press conference after cancelling the annual December spectacle last year.

State television will broadcast the live production in which Putin takes stock of the past year.

This time it will feature a press conference for select journalists and then a question-and-answer session for ordinary Russians called "Direct Line with Vladimir Putin."

Putin uses the show to portray himself as a caretaker and problem solver.

"Direct Line" allows citizens to put questions to the Kremlin leader. Their queries usually focus on domestic issues, with health care, the economy and infrastructure being common topics.

Russian state media reported that more than one and a half million questions had already been submitted.

Putin, who has been in power as prime minister or president since 2000, has held these media events most years. They sometimes stretch on for over four hours.

But he cancelled the press conference last December for the first time in 10 years. At the time, Kremlin observers were convinced Putin wanted to avoid questions from international journalists while his army was suffering a string of setbacks in Ukraine.

A year later, Ukraine's counter-offensive to retake territory occupied by Russia has faltered and Putin is appearing increasingly confident that he will win the war he launched.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the session will start at 10 am (0800 GMT). The programme is scheduled to last around three hours, however Peskov said there was no time limit.

Unlike Putin's previous year-end press conferences, there was no official accreditation procedure this time and the Kremlin only issued invitations to selected journalists.

This is the first time since Russia began its all-out war against Ukraine in February 2022 that Putin will give a statement in such a format.

Photo: MIA archive