President Vladimir Putin is dropping his annual marathon press conference for the first time in a decade, as his forces continue to stumble in their war in Ukraine.
“There won’t be one before New Year,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call Monday, without explanation, in response to a question about the event. The president would try to “find an opportunity” instead to talk to journalists, Peskov said.
Putin has held the end-of-year news conference each December since he returned to the presidency in 2012, drawing hundreds of journalists from across Russia and representatives of foreign media to Moscow for the televised live event that usually ran for well in excess of three hours.
