During the live broadcast that lasted 3 hours and 40 minutes, the President answered 80 questions out of the over 3 million that were received, according to the Presidential website.
If they've really had 3 million calls, that means one in 50 out of Russia's entire population trying to get through to Putin.
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) April 14, 2016
#PutinDirect: 2,500 calls, 8,000 sms messages per minute with questions for #Putin pic.twitter.com/zxDAeOmx5R
— Murad Gazdiev (@MuradoRT) April 14, 2016
Social media users however rightfully noted that “despite talk of schools, roads, the economy at Putin's call-in”, people are still most interested in his personality and private life.
Despite talk of schools, roads, the economy at Putin's call-in, people most interested in what he said about ex-wife pic.twitter.com/cEbRFla8ZA
— Alec Luhn (@ASLuhn) April 14, 2016
#putinpresser: relationship with my-ex-wife has probably gotten better since we got divorced pic.twitter.com/Y9PECMyWDw
— Murad Gazdiev (@MuradoRT) April 14, 2016
Many enjoyed the questions from the smaller viewers, especially the one from a girls who asked about who he would decide to save Poroshenko and Erdogan were both drowning.
Priceless: When Putin is asked who he would save if Poroshenko and Erdogan were drowning… #DirectLine pic.twitter.com/4L9IRHs4Cu
— Luke Allnutt (@lukeallnutt) April 14, 2016
The president joked that the question caught him off-guard. However he went on to explain that if someone decided to drown, there's no saving them. But "we will lend a helping hand to anyone who asks."
Others liked the question about what his three secret wishes would be if a genie magically appeared to grant them.
Best question to #Putin of the day: What 3 wishes would you pick if you found a magical wish granting goldfish? From Tatiana 11 in the Urals
— Alexander Frost (@AlexB_Frost) April 14, 2016
"We shouldn't rely on miracles. We have to work with our own hands," the president answered, rather sensibly.
"Otherwise we will end up with nothing, just like in a famous Pushkin fairy tale."
Q to #Putin: Who is worse Clinton or Trump? #DirectLine #Прямаялиния https://t.co/6IpZeBezGz pic.twitter.com/iLb8w1C01H
— RFE/RL (@RFERL) April 14, 2016
On the question of who is worse for Russia – Trump or Clinton, was also another favorite.
The Russian leader answered that international relations should be about cooperation, and not about the lesser evil.
#PutinDirect: #Trump or #Clinton? No favorite, says Putin, but prefers someone less "exceptional". Dig at #Obama pic.twitter.com/SQBzgtHz8w
— Murad Gazdiev (@MuradoRT) 14 апреля 2016 г.
"You know, we should be looking for someone who's better, not worse," he said.
However the President’s answer about his US counterpart seems to provoke the biggest reaction on Twitter.
"This is another proof that the President is a decent guy. It takes heart to admit something like that," the Russian leader said in response to President Obama admitting his mistakes in Libya.
Quite funny that I'm receiving dozens of abuse tweets for saying Obama a "decent man". That was a Putin quote folks. https://t.co/X2Z09fCrri
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) 14 апреля 2016 г.
Many noticed that bringing up a problem with Putin directly seemed like a speedy way to finding a fast track to getting it resolved! The first question came from the city of Omsk and was about the lack of good roads in the area.
Twitter users were quick to suppose that those probably are already being fixed.
Twitter suggesting they're already paving the roads in Omsk, just hours after Putin got the question about it. https://t.co/nHZKfoQRIi
— greg white (@whitegl) 14 апреля 2016 г.
