Putin speaks to the nation in traditional year-end press conference: Live Updates
Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold his traditional end-of-year press conference on Friday at noon Moscow time. This year will again combine the event with the ‘Direct Line’, during which Putin will respond to questions from citizens and the press.
According to the Kremlin, Western journalists are also expected to take part in the event.
The collection of queries from the Russian public began on December 4 and had reportedly exceeded 1.2 million as of Sunday. Last year, Putin fielded questions from a total of more than 2 million submitted for four and a half hours.
The main topics are expected to be “social issues” and questions related to Russian frontline soldiers and their families, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Izvestia in an interview on Thursday.
“While last year, healthcare-related issues were the most common, this year they’re not even in the top three. In the top five, probably,” he said. Many systemic problems have been ironed out in the past year, he noted.
The Russian president always prepares for the year-end event in advance, but the days ahead of the broadcast are hectic, when Putin brings questions to ministers and deputy prime ministers, according to Peskov.
Follow live updates on RT.com for the latest from the press conference and direct line session.
19 December 2025
10:24 GMTRussian soldiers want to “finish off the viper” after seeing what Ukrainian forces did to civilians in territories they had to retreat from, Putin says, citing reports that the bodies of grandmothers were found riddled with bullets while others were apparently killed by drones.
- 10:18 GMT
Russia has become a global leader in drone production, Putin says. He notes that over 400,000 people signed contracts with Russia’s armed forces in 2025 and that the number of people requesting to become drone operators is so large that the ministry has had to introduce a competitive selection process.
- 10:08 GMT
The campaign to steal frozen Russian assets is also a PR-disaster for the entire Eurozone, Putin says. “Apart from reputational damage, [the bloc] could incur direct losses associated with the basis of the modern financial world order.”
- 10:01 GMT
The EU’s botched attempts to use frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine could have qualified as “stealing if done secretly” but “in the open it’s robbery,” Putin says.
- 09:57 GMT
Russia’s already-low unemployment rate has reduced even further to reach 2.2%, Putin says.
- 09:52 GMT
Putin adds that Russia’s 1% GDP growth was mostly due to the government’s conscious decision to tackle inflation, which is projected to fall below 6% by year-end.
- 09:52 GMT
Pivoting to the Russian economy, Putin says annual GDP growth reached 1%, while over the past three years it increased by 9.7%. To compare, the Eurozone’s GDP rose by just 3.1% in the same period.
- 09:48 GMT
Commenting on the recent clip of Vladimir Zelensky allegedly shot around 1km from Kupyansk, which was captured by Russian troops, Putin says it proves only that the Ukrainian leader remains “a talented artist.”
- 09:40 GMT
Ukraine has almost run out of troop reserves, which should ultimately force Kiev to return to the diplomatic process, Putin says.
