The meeting was attended by Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko, Speaker of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Anton Vaino, Secretary of the Security Council Sergei Shoigu, Presidential Aide Nikolai Patrushev, Defence Minister Andrei Belousov, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Director of the Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov, Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin, as well as Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky and Chief of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces – Deputy Chief of the General Staff Igor Kostyukov.
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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues,
Today, we have a significant and, I believe, highly pertinent item on our agenda – namely, measures to enhance the efficiency of fundamental and applied research in the interests of national defence and state security. We will proceed to discuss this matter.
However, before we commence our work and move to the main discussion, I would like to invite our colleagues who have recently returned from Geneva – where they held meetings with American and Ukrainian delegations to explore solutions, peaceful solutions, regarding developments on this track – to deliver their remarks.
The delegation was headed by Vladimir Medinsky. I would like to give him the floor, to be followed by a colleague from the Defence Ministry, so that our colleagues share with us how the discussions proceeded and what agreements were reached – they have already reported to me, but I would like all permanent members of the Security Council to also be briefed directly, so to speak, first-hand.
Please, let us begin.
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