​The Kremlin announced on Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not hold his marathon news conference this year, a last-minute decision amid growing fears that the televised event would be dominated by the war in Ukraine, government sources told the newspaper. Moscow Times. In addition, Kremlin sources say there were fears of a major attack ahead of the big event, something that has become a tradition for Putin since his time in power in Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has held 17 such marathon press conferences since coming to power in 2000, traditionally a chance for him to demonstrate that he is in control of the problems facing the Russian Federation.

This year’s conference is said to have been dominated by what Putin calls a “special military operation” in Russian space, while there were fears in the Kremlin that Kyiv could launch a large-scale attack ahead of the event.

“No one can guarantee 100% that such an attack will not happen. The president knew about it, and it was a strong argument for canceling the press conference,” a Kremlin official told The Moscow Times on condition of anonymity.

Moscow has faced further humiliations on the battlefield, more retreats from territories that Putin says will “belong to Russia forever” after illegal referendums, and Kyiv has recently been able to strike military targets in the Russian Federation.

Vladimir Putin’s decision to cancel his famous marathon press conference for the first time in 10 years is a rare sign that events on the front are having a direct impact on political decision-making.

Several canceled events in 10 months of war

This year, the Kremlin canceled several police measures. Putin did not conduct a traditional television call – the last such event took place in June 2021.

And the Kremlin has yet to set a date for the annual State of the Nation address to lawmakers, despite Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov promising in September that it would take place this year.

Preparations for Putin’s marathon news conference, which will be attended by both Russian and foreign journalists and last up to four hours, were well advanced when the Kremlin leader decided to cancel it, six Kremlin and Russian government officials said on condition of anonymity: The Moscow Times.

According to officials cited by the independent publication, several advisers were even appointed to work on the main topics that the Russian president was going to touch on.

“We discussed the situation at the front and how it is not developing in the best way,” said a Kremlin official. Today’s Russia is truly a besieged fortress, and Putin is its commander,” the source added.

Doubts grew

But over the past month, doubts have grown among senior officials, in particular due to Russia’s military failures in Ukraine in the last months of the war: the withdrawal from Kherson, the attack on the Crimean bridgehead, problems with partial mobilization, and Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory.

The icing on the cake was that security services could not guarantee Putin that there would not be a major Ukrainian attack around the event, according to a Kremlin official.

Officials fear an ominous event and Putin’s State of the Nation address to both houses of parliament, which Russian news agency TASS reported on Wednesday, will be postponed until 2023.

Another major concern of the Kremlin is that Putin could be associated with the war, which would negatively affect his popularity.

Despite the fact that Moscow is trying with all its might to control all information that reaches the population, the latest polls of independent publications and journalists show that more than 50% of ordinary people want peace talks with Ukraine and believe that Putin was wrong to start the invasion.

War is a topic that cannot be avoided

If the marathon press conference had taken place, it would have been impossible to avoid the war in Ukraine becoming its main topic, according to all the officials quoted by The Moscow Times.

“Most of the questions would be: ‘My brother was mobilized and he was given a 1942 helmet, and we had to buy him boots with our money… Volodymyr Volodymyrovych, solve the problem!’ And there would be other questions. was even more inappropriate,” the Kremlin official said.

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to answer questions from The Moscow Times about the reasons for canceling the press conference.

Putin, a positive character

Instead, the Kremlin wanted to find positive events to associate Putin with, asking major companies in the energy, transportation and communications sectors to include the Russian leader in an unusually large series of public events, from inaugurating a turkey farm in Siberia to celebrating the days of the Atomic Energy Agency “Rosatom” and the defense conglomerate “Rostec”, to the ceremonial opening of the road section of the Crimean Bridge, when he drove a Mercedes to inspect the recently completed works.

But Putin will not be able to avoid the subject of war indefinitely, according to political scientist Abbas Gallyamov, a former speechwriter for Putin, who says canceling the marathon press conferences and postponing the address to the nation were good tactical moves.

“These decisions testify to the strategic impasse the Kremlin has found itself in,” Gallyamov said.

Follow the latest events of the 295th day of the war in Ukraine LIVETEXT on HOTNEWS.RO