Putin To Answer Questions In Live Web Cast
Mary K. Brunskill - All Headline News Staff Writer Moscow, Russia (AHN) - Russian Web site www.yandex.ru and the BBC's www.bbc.co.uk are jointly running a webcast of an online conference with President Vladimir Putin. The Web sites' organizers have invited people to question him over the Internet on Russia's democracy, its newly assertive role in the world and his personal qualities. Users are particularly interested in why Putin recently lifted up the T-shirt of a young boy walking in the Kremlin and kissed him on the stomach. Of the 87,000 questions that have been sent to Yandex, this was the most popular -- nearly 11,500 people have asked Putin to provide an answer. For reasons Reuters calls "not clear," 8,600 Russians want to know if Putin plans to employ "giant, humanoid war robots" and 7,300 people want him to be questioned about the Cthulhu, a cosmic cephalopod invented by author H.P. Lovecraft that sleeps beneath the Pacific Ocean. Users also want to ask Putin about more serious issues in Russia, such as the size of pensions, military conscription, rising xenophobia and corrupt officials. Many foreigners who wrote questions to the BBC Web site in English want to know about Putin's personal life as well as his views on Russia's separatist war in Chechnya and the obstacles of getting a visa to visit Russia. The Web sites will accept questions until 1300 GMT Thursday, at which time Putin will begin answering some |
