Russian President Vladimir Putin began his traditional big press conference with a greeting journalists and suggested to go straight to the issues, RIA Novosti reported.

The press conference began with a slight delay: the start was scheduled for 12.00, but the head of state arrived at 12.07. Putin greeted reporters, noting that "he will not give long speeches."

The president proposed to go straight to the questions. The first dealt with global warming.

Putin introduced the practice of holding large press conferences in 2001 during his first presidential term. Interest in the event is growing year by year. This year, 1895 people received accreditation for the event - a record number of journalists.