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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)

12:07 15.6.2017
12:17 15.6.2017

Q from Kaliningrad: What happens to the stadium after the World Cup is over? Can we use it? [Kaliningrad is one of the hosts.]

A: It's an odd question, to be honest. Of course. Almost everything we built for the Olympics in Sochi is in use today.

12:22 15.6.2017

Q: Are you ready to talk to the opposition?

A: I am ready to talk to anyone who wants to solve problems, and not to use them as the means for political PR.

12:23 15.6.2017
12:31 15.6.2017

Schoolchildren ask Putin for words of encouragement.

He delivers.

12:32 15.6.2017

Putin, referring to former FBI Director James Comey's testimony to the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee:

"[Comey] said that he took notes of his conversation with the president [Donald Trump] and then handed it over to the media through his friend. It looks and sounds very strange when the head of special security service is taking notes of his talks with the commander-in-chief and handing it over to the media through his friend. Then what's the difference between the FBI director and [the former U.S. intelligence contractor who leaked thousands of secret documents from the National Security Agency] Mr. [Edward] Snowden?"

"It makes him not the head of special security service then, but a rights defender, who defends a certain position. By the way, if he will face any kind of prosecution in this regard, we are ready to provide him with political asylum in Russia. He has to know this."

12:35 15.6.2017

Q: If you had a time machine, where would you go?

A: I wouldn't use it, because whatever happens happens, only the time machine means unpredictable consequences. However, I would love to see how St. Petersburg was built. How our fathers and grandfathers won World War II. How decisions important for Russia were made.

12:35 15.6.2017
12:38 15.6.2017
12:41 15.6.2017

When asked about corruption, Putin says he knows about the issue, but it has never been the first question people asked him during previous Direct Lines. It is not a paramount issue, but still an important one.

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