The festival’s main goal is to develop school libraries and, in support of this objective, the Russian First Lady and the First Ladies of five other countries sent books from their home libraries to Russian children’s homes.
Mrs Putina sent a parcel of books to the Blagoveshchensky Children’s Home in the Republic of Bashkortostan. The British Prime Minister’s wife, Cherie Blair, sent books to the children’s home in the town of Troitsk, Chelyabinsk Region. The village of Ishma in the Komi Republic received books from Margit Fischer, the wife of the Austrian President, and Zorka Prvanova, the wife of the Bulgarian President, sent books to the Nadezhda Children’s Home in Zarechny, Sverdlovsk Region.
Mrs Putina and Information Technology and Communications Minister Leonid Reiman also franked a postage stamp bearing the symbols of the Bibliobraz festival on an envelope with the logotypes of two competitions – for the best writer and the best reader – held by the Centre for the Development of the Russian Language.
The postage stamp was franked using a specially made postmark that, after the festival ends in three days time, will be handed over to the Museum of the Ministry for Information Technology and Communications.