Kremlin Notes Eightfold Increase in Nationwide Phone-in to President Putin

Preliminary numbers indicate an eight-fold increase in the phone calls made to Russian President Vladimir Putin's hotline compared to last year, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The president's live broadcast nationwide phone-in is scheduled to take place next Thursday, April 16. People from across the country and beyond are expected to submit questions by phone, via an official website, social networks and a dedicated cross-platform mobile application before the event.

"As of 18:00 [15:00 GMT], we received 48,670 phone calls. We had little less than 7,000 calls by the same time in 2014. In general, we are recording an eight-fold increase compared to last year, meaning there is fairly high interest," Peskov told reporters.

Peskov noted the biggest share of calls centered around housing and utilities, social welfare, as well as human rights and freedoms.

"There were many questions related to corruption. That means the government's proactive stance in the fight against corruption, naturally, generates higher expectations of more concrete and effective actions," he said.

A well-established tradition throughout Putin's presidency, the first nationwide phone-in has been held every April for the last 14 years. With a steady growth in duration, the last two hotlines lasted a record 4 hours 47 minutes in 2013 and a little under 4 hours last year.