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Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold his annual press conference on Thursday.
The conference comes at a time of rising tensions between Russia and the West, following the gathering of Russian troops near the border with Ukraine and calls for “security guarantees” from Moscow, which would halt NATO’s eastward expansion and restricted Alliance activities throughout the former Soviet Union.
The conference will be held at the Manege Center in Moscow under strict coronavirus protocols. Due to anti-pandemic restrictions, Kremlin spokesman Dimitry Peskov said only about 500 local and foreign journalists would be able to attend, as more than 1,000 journalists have covered the conference in recent years.
Journalists were asked to submit three negative PCR tests in order to be able to attend the year-end conference.
In recent weeks, the United States, the North Atlantic Alliance and Kiev have expressed concern over the gathering of some 100,000 Russian troops near the border with Ukraine and in the Ukrainian-occupied Ukrainian region of Crimea. US officials say Moscow may be planning a military strike on Ukraine. But Russia denies having such intentions.
Meanwhile, more than 13,200 people have died in fighting between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine since the start of the conflict in 2014.
Otherwise, every Putin’s annual conference since 2004 has lasted at least three hours, and the longest year-end conference was held last year, which lasted four and a half hours.
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