Mr Putin’s telegram to the organisers and guests at the Institute’s opening ceremony reads, in particular:
“I am pleased to see that this unique medical facility, equipped with the most advanced medical and engineering technology, has started work in St Petersburg. Your institute bears the name of Raisa Maximovna Gorbacheva, and this is a natural decision, for she always took others’ pain close to heart and did much to help children suffering from serious illness. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who played an interested and active part in creating the Children’s Haematology and Transplantation Institute for their active civic spirit and great personal contribution to resolving important social problems”.