The President was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets, Presidential Aide Andrei Fursenko and Head of the Republic of Crimea Sergei Aksyonov. The Centre’s director Andrei Kasprzhak informed the President about the plans for the camp’s development.
Vladimir Putin viewed the models of the compound where all the current facilities are represented as well as the new ones to be built in 2017–2018 and later. Mr Putin was also shown a gym, a canteen, a folk craft classroom and a dormitory.
The Artek International Children’s Centre is the world’s largest children’s facility in terms of the annual number of attending children and consists of nine reconstructed camps. The President saw the results of the Centre’s infrastructure modernisation ongoing since 2014, as well as the works on the construction of the tenth camp called Solnechny (Sunny).
During his visit to Artek Mr Putin took part in the opening ceremony for the seventh shift of 2017 dedicated to Samantha Smith, an American schoolgirl who visited the USSR as a Goodwill Ambassador and became a symbol of international children’s diplomacy. The President also had a chat with the participants of the seventh shift.