As he has on four previous occasions since 2001, Putin will respond to questions selected by moderators or posed directly by Russians in satellite television linkups from a number of Russian cities and towns.

The session was to be broadcast live on three national television networks and two major radio stations while questions may also be submitted by mobile phone SMS message, email or the old-fashioned way with a land line phone call.

The event was scheduled to begin at noon (0800 GMT) Wednesday, and on the eve of the broadcast a special website set up for the appearance indicated that so far the Kremlin had received more than 1.2 million questions for Putin.

Of those, more than 50,000 were submitted by Internet.

"Unfortunately, not all questions submitted can be answered, due to limited airtime," noted a precautionary warning on the website, www.president-line.ru.

A sampling of questions so far received, posted on the website, suggested that Putin would be asked to respond to issues ranging from relatively banal domestic concerns to some of the most pressing current international problems.

"Will support be increased for children of young parents with limited means?" was among the questions on "social protection" issues posted on the website.

It was preceded by: "What do you think of North Korea's nuclear test?"

If similar appearances in past years are any indication, Putin can be expected Wednesday to face a cascade of tailor-made or even fawning questions, though he was also likely to be grilled on a hot-button topic here and there.

"If there is a war between Georgia and Abkhazia, what will Russia's position be and what action will Moscow take?" one pre-selected question asked, referring to a contentious "frozen conflict" in the former Soviet Union.

Tensions between Russia and Georgia remain high amid a Russian economic blockade on its small southern neighbor, imposed after four Russian officers were arrested last month by Tbilisi and accused of spying.

The Kremlin said only "the most interesting and currently relevant" questions would be submitted to Putin, but provided no explanation for how those would be determined and who would decide what was "most interesting".

Some political analysts dismissed the whole exercise as theater.

Such events "serve to hide the fact that there are no democratic mechanisms in Russia, such as an opposition and an independent press, to hold the authorities to account," scoffed Maria Lipman of the Carnegie Moscow Center.

She said many would be watching with interest to see whether Putin was presented with a question regarding the recent murder of Anna Politkovskaya, an investigative journalist highly critical of the Kremlin.

Putin, whose administration got some Western PR coaching this year as it managed the Group of Eight presidency for the first time, has said in the past that he favors the direct, televised question-answer sessions.

"It is a good format," he said on September 27 last year, after he spent more than three hours answering questions.

"It enables you to feel the problems that worry the people. It is a good guideline for practical work."

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