{{Ukraine and high housing bills are expected to be among the top issues on President Vladimir Putin’s live call-in show Thursday when he answers questions from across Russia and perhaps as far afield as Alaska. }}
12:48 p.m. – Putin is asked whether Russia would consider strengthening its relations with China with a political union. He expresses his doubts on the creation of a new political bloc, but says the countries are neighbors and allies.
12:44 p.m. – Putin says he resents the fact Yanukovych fled Kiev following mass protests.
12:40 p.m. – Putin said Berkut fulfilled its professional obligations in an honorable manner and Ukraine is wrong in its treatment of these “professionals.”
12:38 p.m. – A former member of Ukraine’s Berkut, the riot police force which was disbanded after the ouster of Yanukovych, asks Putin whether Yanukovych has “always been a traitor.”
12:36 p.m. – The commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Alexander Vitko, asks Putin whether Russia will develop a training program for the military in Crimea.
12:36 p.m. – Putin says that Russian soldiers in Crimea conducted themselves in a “professional” manner. He also repeats that the peninsula’s referendum on joining Russia was legitimate and transparent.
12:29 p.m. – Putin says Crimea is a place for “tourism” but has large potential to prosper in other economic sectors as well.
12:25 p.m. – Putin refers to the Ukrainian authorities as “our Ukrainian partners.” He also says Crimeans’ pensions will be raised “step by step.” Putin says he hopes Crimeans will feel the material benefits of having joined Russia.
12:23 p.m. – A man from Sevastopol thanks Putin for having returned Crimeans to the “Motherland.” The crowd in the background chants: “Thank you, thank you!”
12:19 p.m. – An elderly woman tells Putin that the situation in Ukraine has created new political divisions, as well as division within families. Putin says Russia was always close to Ukraine in the past and will maintain close ties to the country in the future.
12:17 p.m. – Question three: A citizen of Sevastopol asks Putin what will happen with funding for the Black Sea Fleet. Putin says some of Novorossyisk’s fleet would be moved to the city.
12:15 p.m. – The broadcast takes an elaborate video question from Sevastopol, home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. Hundreds of people gathered on the waterfront say that they voted in favor of joining Russia.
12:12 p.m. – Putin says Russian action in Ukraine was not planned. He says Russia’s actions stemmed from the necessity to respond to a “security” situation. Putin says that he waited for the results of the Crimean referendum to conclude the “will” of the people was to be part of Russia.
12:11 p.m. – The threat to the Russian-speaking population was real, Putin says. Putin says the threat was the basis for Crimeans’ desire to join Russia. “We wanted our Russians to live in comfortable political circumstances, where they are not under threat.”
12:08 p.m. – “We need to talk to the people, to speak with legitimate representatives,” Putin says. Putin says dialogue and democratic procedures are the only way out of the conflict. Question two: What is your reaction to allegations that there are Russian agitators in eastern Ukraine? “Nonsense,” Putin says. “There are no Russian operatives in Ukraine.”
12:06 p.m. – Putin enumerates the reasons for discontent in Ukraine, including the new Ukrainian government’s withdrawal of the law on minority language. “We need to think how we can get out of this situation,” Putin says.
12:05 p.m. – Putin calls the ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych “unconstitutional.”
12:04 p.m. – Putin says that the signing of an association agreement between Ukraine and the EU would have undermined Ukraine’s economic and political position.
12:03 p.m. – Putin gets asked his first question: What is your assessment of the situation in eastern Ukraine?
12.02 p.m. – More than 2 million questions have been submitted, one of the moderators says.
12.01 .p.m. – President Vladimir Putin walks onto the stage, shakes hands with the show’s moderators. The studio audience greets him with polite applause.
12.00 p.m. – In Sevastopol, people are lining up to watch together
Ukraine and Crimea dominate the 10 most popular questions published on the call-in show’s official website. People are asking Putin how he will deal with “further worsening of the crisis in Ukraine,” how he can help residents of Crimea obtain Russian passports, and — in a jab at the West — how he is “able to keep a clear head amid an incoming barrage of lies and unjustified accusations.”
On domestic issues, people are more worried about housing than the weakening ruble, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“Housing is the scourge of all Russia,” Peskov said on Rossia 24 state television on Wednesday night. “People from different regions are dissatisfied with how much they have to pay for housing and utilities and what they have to pay.”
He said people were less worried about the ruble, which has lost 8.7 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar since January.
Putin will be accepting questions submitted by the official website, as well as by text message, telephone, a special cell phone app, and a live video link from Sevastopol, the Black Sea port in Crimea that Russia annexed last month. The Kremlin also has sought questions from politicians and regular people in the U.S. state of Alaska, according to Canadian news site Eye on the Arctic.
After Russia’s annexation of Crimea, which the Kremlin said corrected a “historical mistake,” some in Russia would like to see the divide with Alaska eliminated by having Russia stake a new claim on the territory, which Tsar Alexander II sold to the U.S. for $7.2 million in 1867.
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