Questions from all over the world will be addressed to President Putin

Questions to Russian President Vladimir Putin will be coming from all over the world during a live TV and radio link-up.

This was the case during the previous live link-ups. The number people asking questions from remote parts of the world is increasing with every passing year. Thus, 49 questions came from Africa in 2001, and in 2002 their number increased to 96. Australians sent 17 questions by the Internet in 2001 and 29 questions in 2002.

The number of questions from Europe has increased by 50 percent (over 1,500 messages last year) and that from Asia has doubled, to reach 548.

The interest of those who live in America is stable - 169 E-mail letters in 2001 and 154 in 2002.

As many as 2,500 questions have come from the CIS countries.

As it is noted on the site www.linia.2003.ru, specially made for the live link-up with President Putin, most of the letters are from the countrymen. A considerable number of messages is a associated with a possibility of receiving Russian citizenship - people ask to help them to come back to their homeland for permanent residence.

Last year 22 percent of the correspondents asked questions about the living standards, social maintenance and wages; 11.6 percent asked about the situation in the economy, tax reforms and the relationship between businessmen and the authorities; 10.5 percent asked questions related to education, science and culture.

In the total amount of correspondence coming through the Internet 8.8 percent concerned foreign policy, the CIS and the position of countrymen. Matters related to the army and the military reform were interesting to 6 percent, and the number of those who sent their questions concerning the state machinery and officials was 5.5 percent. Putin's private life was interesting to 5.4 percent. The authors of the letters also asked through the Internet questions about progress in combating crime, about the health of the nation and about sports; 2.1 percent asked about the struggle against terrorism; and 1.9; percent about the vertical of power in Russia, about federal development and the development of political parties.

In 2001 people who asked questions through the Internet were interested in about the same topics.

An curious point to note here is that men more often than women preferred the Internet to telephone in asking their questions - over 70 percent of them used the Internet.

Most of the women asked about the living standards, pensions, education and culture, while men asked more about foreign policy and combating red tape and corruption. But they all were interested in subjects like the health of the nation, combating drug addiction, and popularization of healthy life habits. It is noteworthy that in 2001 every fifth question asked through the Internet came from a businessman.