| JRL HOME | SUPPORT | SUBSCRIBE | RESEARCH & ANALYTICAL SUPPLEMENT | |
Old Saint Basil's Cathedral in MoscowJohnson's Russia List title and scenes of Saint Petersburg
Excerpts from the JRL E-Mail Community :: Founded and Edited by David Johnson

#11
RUSSIANS HAVE 4 MILLION QUESTIONS TO ASK PRESIDENT

MOSCOW, DECEMBER 21 /From RIA Novosti's Yelizaveta Sviridova/ - Russians may put in an estimated 4 million questions by the time President Vladimir Putin speaks live on television on Monday, December 24, press office of the RTR state television announced Friday.

The head of state is expected to speak live on two major Russian television networks - the RTR and the ORT public television - at noon Moscow time.

RTR spokespeople said the questions are coming in by telephone and online.

On December 19 -- the day the Kremlin press office announced the President's appearance - switchboard operators received 13,946 calls. Another 74,083 calls were placed the following day.

By mid-Friday, RTR had received over 23 thousand calls. The RTR press office predicted the calls might reach a peak on Sunday.

ORT sources said the network had set up a telephone center at the Ostankino television center, which can receive 240 phone calls simultaneously.

The network spokespeople said sampling and sociological analysis of the input was underway. They said the Efficient Policy Fund was doing the job.

By now, mobile television stations have been set up in 10 cities of Russia for the head of state's live broadcast.

Online questions to the President are received in the building of VGTRK - the establishment that runs the RTR. They are then forwarded to the presidential administration along with the phoned questions.

RTR sources said all the ground cable lines run by the Communications Ministry and two satellite channels will be used for the broadcast.

RTR news anchor Sergei Brilev and ORT's Yekaterina Andreyeva will be announcing the Russians' questions to the President.

Back to the Top    Next Article