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Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his televised question-and-answer session in Moscow on June 15.
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his televised question-and-answer session in Moscow on June 15.

Live Blog: Putin's Call-In Show

Russian President Vladimir Putin is taking questions from Russians across the country in his annual Direct Line show, a lavish and heavily stage-managed production broadcast live by all major Russian state television networks.

-- Vladimir Putin took questions from Russians across the country in the Direct Line program, which lasted four hours.

-- Putin said there was no cause for the new sanctions against Moscow that are under consideration in the U.S. Congress, and that the aim of Western sanctions is to hold Russia back.

-- Putin said the country had pulled out of a long recession and that "the economy has moved to a period of growth."

-- The Direct Line program is one of three high-profile annual events that Putin uses to burnish his image in Russia, send signals abroad, and offer hints about future plans.

-- This year's rendition comes at a time of social tension in Russia, just days after police detained more than 1,500 people at anticorruption protests in cities across the country on June 12. In addition, Moscow has seen numerous protests in recent weeks over a controversial government plan to raze and replace thousands of Soviet-era residential buildings.

*NOTE: Times are stated according to local time in Moscow (GMT/UTC +3)

10:08 15.6.2017
10:02 15.6.2017

A baby was just born on TV. Not a Vladimir, a Mikhail.

09:55 15.6.2017
09:52 15.6.2017

Q from Moscow suburb: We live next to a giant garbage dump. We don't know what to do, addressing you is our last hope.

A: I understand you. Who would build houses next to the dump? We have a law, but it hasn't been implemented yet. As for you, we will try to fix your problem as soon as possible.

09:44 15.6.2017
09:42 15.6.2017
09:38 15.6.2017

Q: My house burned down in 2015 in the forest fires. I have two kids and no place to live. The new housing the local government gave us is unlivable. Please, help me. God bless you.

A: We will solve this. It's our duty, we've promised.

09:36 15.6.2017

Putin says that Russia lost $50 billion due to sanctions related to it actions in Ukraine, but the countries that imposed these sanctions lost $100 billion.

09:33 15.6.2017
09:28 15.6.2017

Putin says there is no cause for the new sanctions against Moscow that are under consideration in the U.S. Congress, and that the aim of Western sanctions is to hold Russia back.

He spoke less than 24 hours after he U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to cement existing economic sanctions imposed on Russia for its actions in Ukraine and impose new ones in response to Moscow's alleged meddling in last year's election campaign.

The amendment passed as part of a larger measure that targets Iran for sanctions, and the overall legislation faces further votes in the Senate and House of Representatives.

Putin said there was no cause to impose new sanctions on Russia and asserted that the initiative was the result of internal U.S. political struggles -- remarks that echoed earlier Russian criticism of Western sanctions.

He said such measures are aimed to "contain Russia" and hold it back.

The United States and European Union have imposed a series of sanctions on Russia over its armed takeover of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and its backing for separatists in a war that has killed more than 10,000 people in eastern Ukraine. (w/dpa, Reuters)

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