Russian President Putin holds large annual news conference in Moscow

Russian President Vladimir Putin is holding his traditional “end-of-year” press conference at the Center for International Trade (WTC) in Moscow, Sputniknewsom reports.

It is the fifteenth annual press conference of its kind that the Russian leader has held at the end of the year since 2001. This conference once again broke the record for the number of journalists accredited to attend it - 1,895 people. Last year, 1,702 members of the press gathered at the WTC. Most of the journalists who came to the president’s annual news conference are reported to be from the regional media. The list includes many members of the national and international press.

The conference is expected to take 3-4 hours, as has been the case since 2004. In 2001, the press conference lasted only 1.5 hours. The 2008 press conference was the longest ever, at 4 hours and 40 minutes.

The press conference will be covered live by TV Channel One, ‘Rossiya 1,’ ‘Rossiya 24’ and several radio stations.