Against the background of Russia’s faltering war in Ukraine, the Kremlin announced that the traditional event of a press conference that takes place every year at the end of the year, will not take place this year. Also, there will be no New Year’s reception in the Kremlin
Vladimir Putin will not hold a year-end press conference for the first time in at least a decade, Putin’s opponents see this as a decision due to his failed war in Ukraine. These press conferences are traditionally an opportunity for the Russian president to improve his image, allowing him to embody his populism on national television during the month of December.
But yesterday (Monday) the Kremlin announced that it will not hold the press conference this year. There will also be no New Year’s reception at the Kremlin, officials said. The “Guardian” reports that the decision was apparently influenced by a reluctance to celebrate, because Russia’s war in Ukraine is not working as planned.
In previous years, Putin has devoted much of the event to answering questions from adoring local journalists, making sure there are no awkward questions from foreign media, allowing his administration to boast of its transparency.
Putin has become much more distant since the start of the corona epidemic and now the devastating war against Ukraine, which has led the Kremlin into international isolation and resulted in an almost total suppression of dissenting voices at home. Putin disappears from the public eye for days at a time, leading to jokes that the Russian leader is hiding in a “bunker”.
Tatyana Stanovaya, the founder of the political analysis company R.Politik, wrote that Putin is likely to see the event as a waste of time this year. “I don’t think Putin has anything to say, especially since he has said so much recently,” she said. “It is likely that he does not have a psychological reluctance to ‘explain himself’, to answer boring and routine questions, to waste time on being honest, to play the role of the kind man, and the like.”