Putin not to give address to Federal Assembly this year
Dictator Putin (Photo:Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via REUTERS)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has canceled his address to the Federal Assembly this year, the Russian propaganda news agency TASS reported on Dec. 14 – just two days after it was reported that the dictator had also cancelled his annual press conference.
A Kremlin source told TASS that the address should be held once a year, and the countdown starts from the previous one. Putin’s last address to the Federal Assembly was given on April 21 this year.
"Therefore, the address may take place next year. I believe that this year it will not happen," the Kremlin source said.
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that he "urges (people) not to speculate.”
He added that Putin's message "does not (yet) exist in written format" and "it is possible (it might be given) next year."
The cancelation of the address to the Federal Assembly comes just two days after the Kremlin announced that Putin would not be giving his annual press conference this year. It is the first time it has been cancelled in a decade, and comes against the backdrop of military defeats of the Russian army in the war against Ukraine.
The event is one of the few in which foreign journalists are given the opportunity to put questions directly to the Russian dictator.
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