Putin jokes about 3I/ATLAS comet as 'Russia’s secret weapon' at annual press conference

Russian President Vladimir Putin was asked about the 3I ATLAS comet and its possible link to an extraterrestrial being by a reporter during the annual televised press conference. Vladimir Putin responded that his answer should remain “strictly between us”, and then he said it's “Russia's secret weapon”, as the crowd erupted in laughter. Putin then further added that Russia will only use this weapon in the most extreme case. “Because we are against deploying weapons in space”.

“Seriously, though, it's a comet. Our scientists are aware of what's happening. Moreover, it's a comet from another galaxy, so it behaves differently than comets of our galactic origin,” said Putin while addressing the lady Kristina in the crowd.

Putin further clarified that the 3I/ATLAS has a different shell, and as it approaches closer to the sun, different processes appear on its surface, such as elongation of the tail, etc. He said that the moon, which appears so close, is 400,000 km away from Earth, and the 3I/ATLAS is 259 million km away from Earth, and it poses no threat.

Putin's annual press conference

The annual marathon event lasted approximately four hours, and appx 2.5 million questions were sent in for the 2025 event. Among them, there were several grilling and light-hearted moments. One young boy asked if Putin roamed around Moscow like an undercover spy, to which Putin responded, "Sometimes". Kirill Bazhanov, a 23-year-old student, proposed to his girlfriend Olga on live air. Another man asked to put up a monument for Persian poet Omar Khayyam, to which Putin agreed.

From time to time, there were sarcastic comments that popped up on the big screen, showing incoming text messages intended for the president. Few users grilled Putin. One user wrote, "Not a direct line, but a circus," another wrote, ”Vladimir Vladimirovich, it's Friday already, can we break out the booze?”Some commented about the rusty tap water, a few asked about internet outages, and one person asked about the poor economic conditions. One user wrote, "Block Roskomnadzor itself!" attacking the communication watchdog, which has blocked all foreign tech platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook and Snapchat.