Putin postpones the customary year-end news conference: Kremlin

The deviation from custom occurs as sanctions weigh heavily on Russia's economy and the country's conflict in Ukraine stalls.

The Kremlin has announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not conduct a year-end press conference this year, abandoning a yearly custom that stretches back to his early years in office.

Putin "often speaks to the press, even on overseas tours," according to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, who stated on Monday that "there will not be [a news conference] before the New Year."

Peskov provided no explanation for skipping the long conference, which often lasts several hours. However, Kremlin analysts believe that Peskov broke procedure because of Russia's conflict in Ukraine, which started in February.

In a time when Russia's conflict in Ukraine has not gone as planned, officials also announced that there will be no New Year's reception at the Kremlin.

Since he came to power in 2000, Putin has conducted a press conference every December, which he has used to defame himself on national television.

Putin spends a large portion of the media conference, a significant political event in the nation, responding to frivolous queries from regional media outlets and the general public. This allows his administration to brag about its commitment to free speech and open government.

He talked for more than four hours the previous year.

Putin's December event, a rare chance for reporters outside the Kremlin pool, including foreign media, to directly ask the Russian president questions, will be absent this year for the first time in ten years.

Putin ordered troops into Ukraine on February 24 and called a mobilisation on September 21 to support Moscow's soldiers there.

As protests developed among Siberian ethnic minorities living in remote, impoverished areas where Russia's military services have traditionally recruited disproportionately, hundreds of thousands of people fled the country to avoid being conscripted.

As a result of Putin targeting local critics of the invasion or the mobilisation itself, Russia has become isolated on the global stage.

Russians' disapproval has risen as Moscow experienced military losses in the conflict, notably the loss of Kherson, a significant city in the south that Russia had forcibly seized.