President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon. I am happy to see you.
I would like to begin our meeting with what we have just discussed with the Rector and the Governor. I want to congratulate you on Yekaterinburg winning the bid to host the 2023 Summer Universiade.
It is a significant and positive event for the city, the region and the whole country. It is also a very beneficial event for the university because some of the buildings and facilities will later be given to the university, allowing the teaching sites that are currently spread all over the city to be moved here and turned into large research and education clusters.
I am confident that this will be beneficial, and I have no doubt that the country will rejoice at the achievements of our student athletes, just as we rejoice at the achievements of our young athletes at the current competitions.
We have started talking about the university. Your university is a respected, large and serious research and educational facility and has been precisely that since its establishment through the merger of several higher educational establishments in 2010. It has produced a synergetic effect, which we can see very well.
In addition, the university received the right to create small innovative companies using a simplified procedure, which has produced a very good effect. Likewise, some of our projects, such as mega-science ones, found fertile soil for their implementation here.
I know that two such projects are being carried out here, with the involvement of French researchers of global renown. I believe one of them specialises in archaeology and the other, in a STEM field.
Overall, this, together with development based on the university’s own resources, is producing a positive effect. I hope you can see this, while we will try to keep up the momentum you have gained over the past years. I am confident that this wonderful university has a bright future.
I would like to end my short address now. If you have any questions, ideas or proposals concerning what we should do to boost the development of your university and our education system as a whole, or the innovative sectors that are connected with science and education, let us discuss them.
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