Russians appear to troll Putin with critical texts at normally carefully orchestrated TV Q&A session

• Text messages criticizing Putin were displayed on-screen during his annual phone-in session.

• The texts criticized Putin, Kremlin propaganda, and issues like the rising costs of groceries.

• The annual phone-in session is thought to be carefully choreographed.

Text messages with rare criticisms of Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared behind him on a large screen during an annual televised phone-in on Thursday.

The event is framed as a question-and-answer session between Putin and the public but is typically carefully choreographed, making it unclear how the dissident messages snuck through.

Some of the messages displayed criticized Putin and the Kremlin’s propaganda machine, while others raised domestic issues.

“Mr President, why does the real Russia differ from the one on television?” one message said.

“Hello. When will it be possible to move to the Russia, which they tell us about on Channel One?” another read, referencing the state-controlled television channel.

Another text took aim at Russian domestic policies: “This question won’t be shown! I’d like to know, when will our president pay attention to his own country? We’ve got no education, no healthcare. The abyss lies ahead…”

Some of the texts also referenced the high prices of groceries in Russia, which Western sanctions and a weakening ruble have exacerbated.

Putin, 71, last week confirmed that he would run for president again next year. He has already served multiple terms in office and has spent over two decades leading the country.

One of the texts addressed Putin’s tenure: “Don’t run for another term as president. Make way for the young!”

Criticisms of Putin and the government are rare in Russia, where the state-controlled media largely restricts dissenting voices and strict laws suppress open criticism.

While some observers marveled at how the messages snuck through the vetting process, one Russian political scientist suggested they may have been deliberately displayed to create a false impression of free speech, The Telegraph reported.

In the wide-ranging press conference, Putin said his goals in Ukraine have “not changed,” and that the war will continue until those aims are reached.

At another point Putin was confronted by an AI doppelgänger asking him a question.

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