Propaganda spectacle in Moscow
The truth leaks out via text message
Updated 12/19/2025 – 11:58 amReading time: 4 minutes
Vladimir Putin is once again putting himself in the limelight this year in a carefully orchestrated propaganda show. The conference from Moscow in the live blog.
The nobles are evil, the tsar is good – so goes a Russian proverb. A principle on which Vladimir Putin built his power. And so the Russian head of state holds court once a year: on the “Direct Wire” program, citizens can address their concerns to the Kremlin leader. The message sent is clear: only Putin can help when everyone else fails.
On Friday at 10 a.m. German time, Vladimir Putin will kick off this year’s propaganda show. The Kremlin announced this morning that more than two million people had already submitted their questions. But which questions get an answer in the live broadcast is by no means a coincidence, but rather a deliberate calculation – in order to set an example both in terms of domestic and foreign policy.
t-online accompanies Vladimir Putin’s media consultation hours for you in the live blog.
11:51 a.m.: The depressed economic situation in Russia remains a dominant theme in the show. Russians complain about rising prices. A little boy complains about rising prices for rolls in the school canteen. A resident of the city of Chapayevsk is struggling with the increased prices for chicken meat. He finds it difficult to feed his family.
The moderators are trying to cover up the differences between Putin’s narrative and the incoming questions. After all, official inflation differs from what people subjectively perceive. Putin argues that egg prices rose sharply, but later fell again. He then talks about supporting families with children. “We understand that this is not enough, but what can you do,” he says, promising that the state will do everything possible to ensure that support is not cut.
11:22 a.m.: More than an hour of the Putin show has passed. While the Kremlin boss talks about the dangers of telephone fraud, the most interesting program continues to take place in the illuminated SMS requests that appear on the screens in the studio. “It’s Friday, time for a beer, Vladimir Vladimirovich,” someone wrote in a direct address to Putin.
