Mr Putin answered some questions of interest to the young people concerning education and science in Russia and the principles of political set-up in modern Russia.
The meeting with students took place in the so-called White House, which is a rare books section of the university library.
Before the meeting Mr Putin viewed a monument to Siberia's first-time explorers on the banks of the Angara River, visited the Baikal environmental museum and toured an exhibition of children’s drawings, called “A Future I Want to Live in”.