Press Secretary of President Vladimir Putin Dmitry Peskov explained why Novaya Gazeta was not invited to the annual press conference of the head of state.
“Novaya Gazeta” was not invited, but this is a human factor. It may be wrong of me to admit it, but we really forgot to call them. Most of the media, whom we did not call until the last week, proactively reached out to us themselves, thereby reminding us of themselves, ”- told Peskov on the air of the program “Moscow. Kremlin. Putin “on the TV channel” Russia 1 “.
According to Peskov, Novaya could not be called two days before the event, because, in accordance with the security measures taken due to the spread of the coronavirus, all participants in the press conference had to pass a PCR test three days before the event.
The question of the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, Dmitry Muratov, concerning the murders of Anna Politkovskaya and Boris Nemtsov, was reported by Ekho Moskvy correspondent Maxim Kurnikov at a press conference. Putin replied to it as follows:
“I did everything to solve these crimes. All assignments and orders were given by me. People are in jail. There is an opinion that the customers hid themselves, remained outside the brackets. The bodies of inquiry do not know this. If there are customers, then we will look for them. If we are talking about some motives of a political nature, then this can be folded in the minds of those who do not understand what he is doing. But he must understand that the state will fight against criminal manifestations. Settlement of scores is unacceptable and is detrimental to our country. “
On December 23, the 17th annual press conference of Vladimir Putin was held at the Manezh exhibition hall in Moscow. For the first time, the Kremlin itself chose whom to accredit for the event. Novaya Gazeta was not included in the list of invited media, and accredited media-foreign agents were not allowed to the microphone to ask their questions.