President Vladimir Putin will hold a big news conference in December, following his state-of-the-nation address the same month, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.
Specific dates have not yet been set, but both events are expected to take place in the second half of December, RIA Novosti reported.
Putin traditionally held nationwide call-in shows after his addresses to the parliament during his first two presidential terms, but last December he decided to have a news conference instead, moving the call-in show to April 2013.
The news conference in December 2012 lasted four hours and 33 minutes, in which time Putin managed to get through 81 questions from journalists.
While heading the country between 2000 and 2008, Putin also held several news conferences that lasted for several hours.
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