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Of: TT
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Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP / TT
Russian President Vladimir Putin participates in a video link during this year’s press conference.
The poisoning of Alexei Navalny, the crown crisis, and rampant unemployment. Vladimir Putin has tough questions to answer during today’s annual press conference, a unique opportunity for reporters and the general public to hold the Russian president accountable.
Alexei Navalny, “a patient in a Berlin clinic”, as Vladimir Putin calls him, is not important enough to be a target for the Russian security service FSB, the president answers a question about the poisoning of the Kremlin critic Navalny with the neurotoxin novitjok.
The poll that earlier this week identified the FSB as guilty of the Navalny case is dismissed.
– We understand what this is about. It is not an investigation, it is a legitimation of accusations by the US intelligence service, says Putin.
The president also did not appreciate the question of whether Russia could grant political asylum to outgoing US President Donald Trump. “A provocation,” Putin replied.
“The challenge passed”
This year’s press conference has been tailored for a pandemic. Putin appears on video from his Novo-Ogarjovo residence on the outskirts of the capital, while around 250 Russian and foreign journalists have been placed at a safe distance from each other at Moscow’s World Trade Center.
“We have met the challenge better than most other countries in the world,” Putin said of the spread of the coronavirus in the country, noting that the economy fared better than in many places, with a GDP drop of 3, 6 percent.
At the same time, the president admits that Russian unemployment increased during the year.
– Everything we do to support the economy we do to preserve jobs, he says.
Not vaccinated
When asked about Russian healthcare, Putin responds that the healthcare system is “unique” and has handled the crown crisis better than any other country. In recent months, however, media reports have painted a different picture; of a healthcare system that cannot cope with pressure during an ever-increasing spread of infection, especially in northern Russia, reports Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.
To date, nearly 48,000 Russians have died after being infected with the virus, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University in the United States.
By early 2021, Russians will receive millions of doses of vaccines, says the president. He himself should take a syringe “as soon as it is available.”
The social media snack quickly became how Putin said “antidote” instead of vaccine, “a Freudian mistake,” writes a journalist on Twitter according to RFE / RL.
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