President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon.
I would like to welcome all of you and… what date is it today? The 22nd? They say the 21st. (Laughter) Days do fly…
We will soon be celebrating Tatyana’s Day. I would like to extend my greetings on the eve of this student holiday. I would like to wish a happy holiday to all students, all those who study in various education institutions, and also your teachers. I wish you all the best.
I know you are holding a conference, which has become an annual event, as I was just told. You discuss many diverse issues.
We would love to see you, as Sirius graduates, move forward in leaps and bounds and see your personal plans and hopes for professional and career growth coincide with the trends of national development. This is not my first visit with students at Sirius, and I know this is usually what actually happens. This is very important for all of us: for you, your success and for the country. You can probably describe better than I can what is happening in the world of innovation, in the world of technology, what challenges are facing almost every country, including this country. It is very important for us to meet these challenges easily, with pleasure and with the best results.
We are planning to hold a Council for Science and the State Council Presidium meetings, which will be devoted to the same subject – the development of science and innovation. We will combine these meetings. They will be attended by many of my colleagues from the regions, members of the new Government and specialists. We will also invite students and scientists to attend. Incidentally, our science is growing younger and I am very happy about this. We will discuss the issues that you have been dealing with.
Therefore, I used this opportunity – your conference (many young people, your teachers are here) – to speak with you about the issues that you are concerned about in the hope that I will be able to use this and bear this in mind when we hold these large combined meetings in order to adjust our policy on science and education.
This takes care of my opening remarks. Let us proceed to the discussion of the suggested topics.
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