Putin gets 150,000 queries ahead of internet conference

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin has received over 150,000 questions ahead of an Internet conference today, asking about his private life, alleged human rights violations in Russia as also whether he would use robots to defend the nation.

The conference being jointly organised by BBC and major Russian web portal Yandex is expected to run for at least 90 minutes.

It will be Putin's second live webcast since he took office in 2000 and his first since re-election in 2004.

According to Kremlin press officials, Putin will answer questions sent to the BBC and Yandex by foreign and domestic netizens in advance as well as the ones received during the internet conference.

Quoting the organisers of the event RIA Novosti said questions from Russian Internet users deal with serious issues, including pensions, military conscription, xenophobia and corruption, as well as with less down-to-earth ones, such as whether the president plans to employ humanoid robots to defend the nation.

Western audiences appear to be more concerned with alleged human rights abuses in Russia and with its president's private life.

The web cast comes in the run-up to a summit of the G-8 group of eight most industrialised nations in St Petersburg under Russian rotating presidency on July 15-17.