Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will answer questions from the nation during his annual Q&A session on Thursday.
During his ninth live phone-in entitled A Conversation with Vladimir Putin: Continued, the premier is expected to discuss xenophobia, pensions, dilapidated housing, kindergartens, gasification and the 2018 World Cup.
The question-and-answer session will begin at noon and will be broadcast by the Rossiya 1 and Rossiya 24 TV channels. It will also be aired by the Mayak, Vesti FM and Radio Rossii radio stations.
Questions may be submitted by telephone, via the Internet or by text message, and will be registered until the end of the live broadcast. The focus of past Q&A sessions has generally been on social problems.
Last year's Q&A session was held on December 3, 2009. It took Putin slightly more than four hours to answer more than 90 questions given to him.
MOSCOW, December 16 (RIA Novosti)
