Side with the president

The "direct line" of Vladimir Putin was updated in the format. The level of questions and answers is stable

The 16th “direct line” of President Vladimir Putin this time lasted about four and a half hours. The organizers decided to abandon people in the studio in order to accept "more calls from people." Another innovation was the direct inclusion of governors and ministers. The behavior of some of them - Anton Siluanov, who did not come on time, or the governor of the Vologda region Oleg Kuvshinnikov, who, moving into the toilet, put in his place in the frame of the television operator - became the reason for jokes on the Internet.

The “Direct Line” this year was traditionally divided into four semantic blocks: the economy - there is also a social apartment - foreign policy, domestic policy and personal. At the same time, the roll into the economy and social policy was obvious: this is probably due to the fact that Vladimir Putin in the message to the Federal Assembly stated that the country's internal position and its future “breakthroughs” were put at the forefront.

Two key topics of this block are gasoline prices and retirement age. Putin complained about the widespread increase in fuel prices around the country (and in parallel, outside the “direct line”, it became known that there was no gasoline on the Kurils at all). The President immediately called the Minister of Energy Alexander Novak and Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, who cheerfully reported that the rise in prices was stopped, and the government will have a new opportunity to increase export duties to ensure the balance of prices. Putin promised to support such a bill.

In experts, this raises certain questions. “What sounded now? We are introducing another manual management tool, ”says Pavel Bazhenov, president of the independent fuel union. - It is not clear what is an indicator for the action of the government. The people rebelled - took advantage of the tool? ” At the current oil prices, Bazhenov believes, it is necessary to cancel excise taxes at all, and instead we are talking about a new penalty -free duty “our government is a cartel conspiracy operator with oil companies to freeze retail prices,” the expert says.

The president was asked if the retirement age would increase. Putin left a direct answer to the question, saying that “one of the key tasks is to increase the revenues of pensioners and reduce the number of people who live behind the poverty line,” and he himself always approached this topic “very carefully”.

According to a member of the Committee of Civil Initiatives, economist Yevgeny Gontmamer, Putin, of course, is reinsured. “If the increase in the retirement age will nevertheless take place (and at the emergency pace at which Medvedev was announced, almost in this spring session), Putin will try to distance himself from this:“ This is not for me, we have an independent government, ”Gontmaker explains. - “The second option: Putin himself has not yet made a decision. Ultimately, he gives the go -ahead. I know that in the government there are different points of view on how to increase the retirement age, how much to do it softly or tough. In this sense, Putin hung the government, he can take them at any moment and publicly a little, as they say, “carve”. If this issue in the end does not enter the agenda of the spring session of the Duma, this will mean that raising the retirement age is postponed. And if the question is still made for consideration, it means that Putin decided to dump all the cones to the government, ”the economist states.

In addition, Putin through volunteers was asked about garbage dumps-Putin promised to build 200 garbage disposal plants and assigned responsibility for this on the newly appointed Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Gordeev. The president was also asked about the cutting of salaries in the regions, a possible increase in taxes and the fight against cancer. Putin either redirected all these questions to his subordinates, or suggested that they figure it out later, since there is no final decision on them yet.

In the field of domestic policy, the most significant question arose according to the persons of Dmitry Rogozin and Vitaly Mutko, who, despite criticism of them, Putin still appoints high positions. The president publicly defend both: Rogozin Putin called the head of Roscosmos “competent”, despite the non -core education (which even the leading broadcasts emphasized); Mutko also has many merits - in particular, the construction of stadiums for the Olympics and the World Cup. In addition, there was a large pressure on Mutko - and under it it is impossible to “send it to retirement”. Political scientist Abbas Gallyamov says that this is actually the official confirmation of the president of the famous thesis about his dislike to make decisions under pressure. “Putin perceives any requirement to resign any of his subordinates precisely as pressure and refuses to concede him. The President believes that having resigned one, he will stimulate the whole shaft of such requirements, so it is impossible to retreat here, ”Gallyamov formulates.

In addition, the State Duma deputy Sergei Shargunov, presented on the air, asked an important question, who, as the presenters said enthusiastically, himself phoned the studio. Shargunov asked to stop pressing on “free-thinking” and deal with a large number of affairs under the 282nd article (“extremism”). Putin agreed that it is not necessary to bring “to the senior”, but “if we are talking about the spread of extremist information, then general rules should be applied: violated - answer.” True, in general, the logical design of thought turned out to be a slightly unexpected ending: Putin called for a half -forgotten “All -Russian Popular Front” to see the situation.

“Feedback institutions with society are so divided that when a public resonance for some reason in the form of an exception reaches the president, there are no reasonable mechanisms with which this can be reacted,” says sociologist Ella Paneyei. -There is no connection with professional associations, there is no connection with those who understand the youth, have forgotten how to listen to experts-legalists and it is not clear who to entrust this business. Here is the ONF at hand - let ONF study. ”

Another calling writer - Zakhar Prilepin - asked about his painful.

He argued that Ukraine is preparing “provocations” at the time of the World Cup - perhaps in the form of aggression against Donetsk and Lugansk.

Putin expressed confidence that this will not happen, and if it will, then this will entail "severe consequences for Ukrainian statehood." The president spoke a little about Ukraine. Within the framework of the foreign policy agenda, she took her place - as much as sanctions, the latest weapons and the Skripals case. All this agenda took time comparable to communicating with bloggers.

Blogger Huseyn Hasanov asked the question of a possible ban on YouTube and social networks. In response, Putin said that it was not planned to close anything, but something should be decided with Telegram, because he was reported that the terrorists used the messenger in the attack in St. Petersburg in 2017, and the special services "could not read the correspondence because it was encrypted." Other issues from bloggers were much less acute - the network has already expressed dissatisfaction with Natalia Krasnova from Chelyabinsk, who, instead of the situation around the Tominsky GOK, asked when they made blogging with a profession.