Putin’s Q&A: Around the world in 80 questions

April 16, 2016 in News by D

President Vladimir Putin answering questions coming from Russian citizens in the annual Q&A live nationwide broadcast from the Moscow Gostiny Dvor studio, April 14, 2016. © Michael Klimentyev
Source: www.rt.com
By Neil Clark

 President Vladimir Putin answering questions coming from Russian citizens in the annual Q&A live nationwide broadcast from the Moscow Gostiny Dvor studio, April 14, 2016. © Michael Klimentyev / Sputnik
‘There are more questions than answers’ the American reggae artist Johnny Nash sang in 1972. The same was certainly true of Thursday’s marathon Q & A with Vladimir Putin, when over 3 million questions were sent in by the general public for consideration.

Today’s session, compared to others we’ve had in the past, was a relatively ‘quickie’ – it ‘only’ lasted three hours thirty-nine minutes – one hour and eight minutes short of Putin’s record, set in 2013.

And the Russian President ‘only’ answered eighty questions. What a slacker!

Even though no records were broken, it was still a pretty impressive watch – particularly for Westerners unused to the rather revolutionary idea of leaders answering a flurry of questions directly put to them by members of the public for hours on end.

Understandably, given public concerns, everyday problems concerning rising prices, the Russian economy and the state of the national infrastructure were among the earliest questions put to Putin. The President said that rising prices were a temporary phenomenon and they were expected to stabilize.

© Michael Klimentyev

‘Katya’ from Omsk asked the President why roads and pavements in her city were in such a terrible state. Putin promised that money had been earmarked for road improvements, but that he would act to make things better.

(Later we learned that the Omsk authorities, following Katya’s question, pledged to fix the roads by May Day).

On the subject of Western sanctions, Putin said there was no sign that they would soon be lifted, even though Russia had complied with the Minsk agreements in relation to Ukraine.

Putin was surely right about this. I have long argued that Ukraine was only used as a pretext to impose sanctions on Russia. If it hadn’t been about Ukraine, it would have been about something else. Vindictive neocons in the US State Department and elsewhere in western elite circles were angry with Russia for blocking their plans for regime change in Syria; pushing for sanctions was their way of paying Russia back.

Note how events in Ukraine ‘kicked off’ not long after Russia’s diplomatic intervention prevented air strikes on Syrian government forces in the summer of 2013. A coincidence? I think not. Those cookies were all ready to be distributed in the Maidan from the moment the plans to bomb Syria were thwarted.

Putin was absolutely correct to say that the crisis in Ukraine had been “artificial”, noting that the same oligarchs remained in power in the country.

“Russia needs a stable and prosperous Ukraine. We’re interested in Ukraine getting up on its feet,” Putin declared. It’ll be interesting to see how the neocons spin that one.

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