Mr Putin congratulated Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov and American astronaut Jeffrey Williams during a link-up with the International Space Station.
The President then held another TV link-up, this time with Star City in Moscow Region, where the members of the 12th expedition to the International Space Station, Russian Valery Tokarev, American William Macarthur and the first Brazilian cosmonaut, Marcus Pontes, are undergoing post-flight rehabilitation. Mr Putin congratulated them on their professional holiday and on their successful flight.
In the Kremlin’s Situations Centre, from where the link-ups with the International Space Station and Star City were organised, Mr Putin spoke with Director of Rosaviakosmos Anatoly Perminov, head of the Cosmonauts’ Training Centre Vasily Tsibliyev, cosmonauts Sergei Volkov, Sergei Krikalyov, Alexei Leonov, Viktor Savinikh and with Director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Biomedical Problems Anatoly Grigoryev.