This year, the journalists even wave icons, construction helmets and scarves with the face of Waldimir Putin. Almost 1900 media representatives came to the Moscow commercial center this Thursday, most of them represent Russian state media, some foreign reporters are among them.
There is shouting and waving with self-made posters just to get the president's attention and to be able to ask him a question.
Putin's press show - this year has 77 questions and will, as always, be broadcast live by all state channels. Almost 20 years ago, Boris Yeltsin announced his resignation in his New Year address and recommended Putin, then Prime Minister, as his successor.
Putin has not become more open to the media in recent years, even journalists from the Kremlin pool often only see the president on TV.
Nothing is left to chance
Therefore, the event in the Moscow commercial center is one of the few ways to get an insight into Putin's world. However, it is a ritual with one-sided rules that Putin is holding for the 15th time.
For the journalists, it is not exactly dignified how they have to wrestle with each other to finally be taken on. Putin and his spokesman Dimitrij Peskow choose who can ask questions with their fingertips. And of course little is left to chance at this event.
Putin has topics he wants to talk about - and topics he avoids. Few representatives of critical Russian-language media are given the floor. Weekly protests in Moscow in summer? They go unmentioned on Thursday. And the brave question of a Russian BBC journalist about the business of Putin's daughters is quickly ironed out.
What will the Kremlin chief do after 2024?
A journalist from the economically liberal medium RBK wants to know whether the Union that Putin is currently renegotiating with Belarus is not used to keep him in office after 2024 - then as President of a Union state Russia-Belarus, a new state construct. This would circumvent the Russian constitution, which only provides for two presidencies in a row.
The Kremlin chief simply ignores the question.
Putin's term of office ends in three years - according to the constitution, he may no longer run. Actually. And then what? He has already swapped office with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Is Putin planning this again? What is he up to? Does he want a "Belarusian solution" - or even change the constitution?
These are questions that have recently been the subject of much discussion in Russia, even if Kremlin spokesman Peskow keeps repelling them. An older journalist from the Kremlin pool inquires about Putin's successor and, after addressing the president, pushes in: "We don't want to let her go."
A Putin doesn't just think out loud
Before that, the president thought aloud about changes to the constitution - now he says: in the passage you can delete the last two words for a maximum of two terms in a row. So two terms. Point. It is a signal that he certainly does not set accidentally, because a Putin is not just thinking out loud. He thus implies that he does not want to extend the terms of office of a president in the constitution. That would mean that for him there would be an end in 2024, which the Russian media are reporting.
Only one person knows whether this will actually happen in the end: he himself. This also applies to the expansion of Parliament's rights and the functions of the President and the government, which he considers possible. Putin does not say exactly what that could mean.
The case of the Georgian shot in Berlin
Instead, he prefers to talk a lot about Ukraine, renewing his demands that peace in Donbass is only possible with the Minsk agreement that has to be observed. Moscow sticks to it because it wants to hold elections before handing control of the border over to Kiev.
Unsurprisingly, even Putin's claims that all allegations against Trump are fictitious and that the impeachment process is only used to harm the US president that Russia has never interfered in election campaigns are not new.
The only surprising thing is that Putin admits to SPIEGEL's request that there was no Russian request for legal assistance on the case of the shot Georgians Khangoshvili in Berlin. The President had said that at the Normandy Summit in Paris. Now he says that there were only conversations at the intelligence agency level. He looks as if the head of state is trying not to burden Russian-German relations any further.
"Happy New Year everyone"
Russian journalists from the country's regions groan about such foreign policy issues: they prefer to talk about garbage problems, road construction and the poor quality of medicines.
Putin is then in the role of caretaker, which he likes to give: his press show then becomes a social hour, but his answers usually remain vague. Since the questions are often mild, even starting with a thank you to Putin, and questions are not allowed, Putin can carry out his show largely undisturbed.
After four hours 18 minutes he has enough: Putin says "Happy New Year everyone" and gets up. The journalists with hard hat and cloth had no chance this time.