The award ceremony took place on February 12 at the Kremlin.
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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, friends.
You were present just now at the ceremony awarding the prize for young cultural professionals. You won the same award really, only in the field of science.
We will talk about your achievements of course, but at the start of our discussion, I want to say that the number of young researchers has increased considerably in Russia over these last years. We see this not only from the results achieved, though the results are the main thing of course, but also by the number of people competing for this prize. What’s more, the research presented covers an ever-wider range of fields and themes.
I know that you have done interesting work with very useful practical applications, and I would like to discuss this with you today.
Which of you was it who worked on large waves and tsunamis? This is certainly a fascinating field and, most importantly, it has practical dimensions. The same goes for the research on DNA. This kind of work that is related to people’s health will, as I understand it, enable us to make new breakthroughs in medicines for fighting malignant tumours and tumours in general, and this is very practical work, very important. The same goes for the work that was done in a field that will strengthen our defence capability. In short, I want to congratulate you all.
Unfortunately, when the award ceremony was already scheduled to take place back in February, my own schedule changed and, as you know, I was unable to attend the ceremony. I mentioned this before at the meeting with the young cultural professionals. You probably remember that we were giving a lot of attention to the work taking place in Minsk at that time. But I am happy to have this chance to meet with you today, and in this informal setting, to discuss what you are working on now and what we can and should do, in addition to awarding you prizes, to help you continue to achieve success. This is a good chance to discuss how to develop our country’s science in general.
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