There’s nothing a popular president enjoys more than a chance to meet informally with his adoring electorate to chat one on one about the issues that concern the common man. And Russia’s Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is no exception. It has become something of a tradition for the president of this vast country with its ten time zones to hold live televised conversations with the Russian people in which ordinary random citizens from every corner of the land who just happen to be on the street in front of a television camera spontaneously ask Putin the questions that trouble them most, which miraculously just happen to be about the very issues he wants to talk about. Putin’s answers to these completely unrehearsed questions are always remarkably lucid and coherent, as if though the wise leader is actually able to anticipate just what concerns are burning in the hearts and minds of his loyal subjects. Never are there any unexpected surprises, questions about awkward topics (Yukos? The Russian public has clearly never even heard the word…), or negative issues brought up. While anybody can see that the whole event is carefully stage-managed, Russians still tune in in droves to watch these slick prime-time spectacles. Just before the most recent such event, which took place a few weeks ago, Nezavisimaya Gazeta (which, despite its name, is anything but an “independent newspaper”, being owned by Gazprom) sent its reporters to four cities where lucky Russians would get a chance to talk to the man himself. The stories filed by even these loyal Kremlin mouthpieces about just how carefully controlled everything was – to the point where the press wasn’t even allowed to cover such an inherently public event – would be comical if they weren’t such a sad testament to the near-total erosion of free speech and democracy in Russia. We offer our exclusive translation below.