Russian television announces unscheduled ‘big interview’ with Putin, airing later today

Russian state-run television announced a surprise “big interview” with Vladimir Putin today. The president’s conversation with news anchor Sergey Brilev will air at 2 p.m., Moscow time (roughly an hour from the time of this writing), on the networks Rossiya-24 and Vesti.ru.

The Kremlin’s press service gave no advance notice of preparations for a “big interview” and the media made the announcement just a three hours before the broadcast. President Putin is expected to discuss “topical issues.”

Once a year, Putin traditionally stages a major press conference where he spends several hours answering questions from Russian and foreign journalists. He also typically holds an annual “direct line” call-in show on television where he fields questions from citizens across the country. Earlier this year, the president addressed the nation several times about the coronavirus pandemic.