Peskov: Putin will not communicate with journalists “like before the pandemic”

Vladimir Putin will not communicate with journalists at close range, as was the case before the pandemic. This was announced by presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov; his words were quoted by Mayak radio.

“It is unlikely that it will be exactly the same as it was before the pandemic in the foreseeable future. There is no need to hide it. You see the processes of virus mutation, strong epidemiological waves of influenza <…> To say that it will soon be the same as before would be wrong. I will answer - it won’t. But as these waves go to their lowest point, then it will be possible to communicate more freely,” Peskov replied.

Before the pandemic, Putin more often communicated with the press offline. For example, journalists often approached the president after the annual press conference and asked questions in an informal setting. In 2019, Dozhd journalist Anton Zhelnov asked Putin to pay attention to the case of activist Konstantin Kotov, who was sentenced to four years in prison under the “Dada article.” After this, the case was sent for review, and the sentence was commuted to one and a half years in prison.