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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)

11:21 15.6.2017

Q: Once you meet [U.S. President Donald] Trump, do you think Russia-U.S. relations could start improving? How?

A: There are areas where we can work together. Restricting nuclear-arms production, ecology, fighting poverty. But it’s not just up to us. We are ready for a constructive dialogue.

11:26 15.6.2017

Q: Comey talked about Russia’s alleged meddling in the U.S. elections.

A: I don’t really know what Comey said during his hearing. We only do things in the open. The U.S. meddles in other countries a lot. Also, I can’t believe Comey recorded a conversation with Trump and then leaked it to the press. If he wants, we can give him political refuge, just like we did with Snowden.

11:27 15.6.2017
11:28 15.6.2017

First question from a child. Andrei is worried about the ecology. Putin says he’ll look into the problem.

11:29 15.6.2017

The anchor reads an Internet question about corruption, but Putin isn’t given a chance to answer.

11:32 15.6.2017
11:33 15.6.2017
11:36 15.6.2017

Putin promises to help. But says that people all over the world complain about health care. And Russia is doing a lot. However, the country is lacking specialists.

11:37 15.6.2017
11:37 15.6.2017

More quotes of Putin:

On Ukrainian government's special representative for prisoner exchange, Viktor Medvedchuk:
"Medvedchuk is a man of conviction. I consider him to be a Ukrainian nationalist. Well, he doesn't like such characterization, he considers himself a devoted patriot of Ukraine. However, it is not a secret that his father was an active member of OUN [Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, active in 1940s, characterized in today's Russia as an ultranationalist group], sentenced by a Soviet court, imprisoned, and deported to [Russia's] Krasnoyarsk region where Medvedchuk himself was actually born."

On Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko quoting Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov's verses "Farewell, farewell, unwashed Russia, The land of slaves, the land of lords, And you, blue uniforms of gendarmes, And you, obedient to them folks" at a ceremony dedicated to the EU's visa-free regime for Ukrainian citizens coming into force on June 11:
"It shows that [Poroshenko] knows Russian classics and is interested in Russian literature. I'll commend him for that."

"Perhaps this is Petro's way of sending us a message that he is not going anywhere after all [suggesting that Lermontov conveyed his love for Russia, not a desire to abandon it, in the poem]? He might be going about it delicately, keeping in mind all those fervent patriots and true nationalists -- those idiots who are running around with swastikas -- while telling us that he has his own interests in Russia and he is not going anywhere [from Russia]. Maybe. But of course, this is only a wild presumption, nothing else."

"By the way, speaking of men in blue uniforms [eds: the Russian word for blue refers both to the color blue and is a derogatory slang for gay people], the place he is busy going to [the Europe Union] has more of them than we do here. It's no place to relax too much there -- he should watch out and look around carefully. At the same time I want to say that we have nothing against these guys. Let me be clear -- we have nothing against you, enjoy your love, and good luck. Especially with new recruits."

On economic dangers on Ukraine's path to Europe:
"Retirement pensions have dropped by 45 percent. So, when it comes to the sanitary situation, should things proceed the way they have been so far, many people in Ukraine may start facing issues of hygiene -- the issue of bathing and how much to bathe will become very serious."

On Ukraine's leaders:
"Those who aspire to be Europeans should first close their offshore accounts in order to speak about the well-being of their people [eds: referring to secret accounts allegedly owned by Poroshenko and other Ukrainian leaders]."

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