Prime Minister Vladimir Putin congratulates Chuvash students on Tatyana’s Day.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin spent Tatyana’s Day, or Russian Students’ Day, in Cheboksary, the capital of Chuvashia. There, he met a group of students in the republican state university and discussed a wide range of issues with them – from the problems of foreign students and the scandalous TV show “School” to the development of innovations and support for small business. Putin did not avoid the compliments of the audience, but courageously tried to resist them.
The prime minister arrived in Cheboksary when the street festival was at its peak. A dancing floor was set up across from the university building and about 300 people were jumping around it, either out of joy or because of the cold. Students in the building were singing to the accompaniment of the accordion. In the meantime, Minister of Education and Science Andrei Fursenko was waiting for the prime minister’s arrival in the hall.
When Putin arrived, he waved to the students outside the building and went in. Together with Chuvash President Nikolai Fyodorov, he listened with a polite smile to the students singing a song from Lyube’s repertoire “I will go with a horse across the field.” After drinking local tea (as a Gazeta correspondent later found out, it was green tea without sugar), Putin went upstairs into the hall where about 20 students, several professors, and the minister were waiting for him.
“First of all, I’d like to congratulate you cordially on Russian Students’ Day,” Putin said. He was asked right away how he celebrated it himself when he was a student. Without pausing to think, Putin replied that Tatyana’s Day became an official holiday owing to the decree he signed in 2005. Before that, this holiday was unofficial, and students sooner celebrated the end of the winter session than the day of the great martyr. “I’ll tell you later how students celebrate it,” Putin said pointedly, clearly hinting that this information will be off the record.
The students were interested in Putin’s attitude toward the First Channel’s notorious TV show, “School.” He said he did not see the show for lack of time but admitted that its director has the right to see school problems from his own angle.
“This does not mean that everything is as it was depicted in the show. This is simply how an artist sees it,” he said, refusing to express an attitude toward the show.
“I have not seen this TV show, and I don’t want to repeat the answer from the
Soviet times: ‘I have not read Solzhenitsyn, but I denounce what he wrote,’” Putin explained.
One black student said foreign students do not feel safe in Russia. Putin replied that during the past year, the rate of crime against students decreased by 34% and that the level of crime motivated by ethnic hatred has dropped almost by half.
Putin told the students about the formation of an electronic data base of vacancies from major labour exchanges. It should start working in June.
He also told the students that they can use the knowledge they gain in universities along with intellectual property rights as the charter capital in starting business, including in the university community. However, when one girl said that she is making money by designing clothes for women, Putin said that universities are not obliged to let students use their premises for small companies.
“A university should not turn into a factory. It should be a factory of specialists,” he explained.
A student from Haiti thanked the prime minister for Russia’s assistance to Haiti in recovering from the earthquake and for transferring him to the free department. Putin said that the government has decided to make education free for all 75 students from Haiti, some of whom previously paid for it.
Then the students showered Putin with personal questions. One girl asked him how he finds time for the family in his busy schedule. This question reminded Putin to call his daughters and congratulate them on Students’ Day. “This is what I’ll do right now,” he said, but did not call in the presence of his audience. When another girl asked him what building produced the biggest impression on him during his numerous tours of the country, he replied instantly: “The Kremlin.”
Putin admitted that he valued decency and tolerance in people above everything else but refused to answer a question about the most romantic thing he ever did in his life. “This is my personal life, so don’t be upset with me,” he said politely.
Then Putin told the students about the advantages of the famous Niva car in which television depicted him more than once. It appears that the car has an Opel engine and excellent cross-country capacity. It is even good in the mountains.
Putin promised one student to help his construction team go to Sochi and emphasized his support for youth sports, owing to which, the number of smokers in Chuvashia, for one, has decreased (Fyodorov said this to Putin as they drank tea in the lobby). He also backed a girl from Kenya who wants to go into alpine skiing, reminding her that she will hardly have a chance to do it at home.
Putin also supported the idea of starting waste management companies in Chuvashia, noting that it is a profitable business. He reminded his audience that now the government will pay for the quality of healthcare rather than for the existence of medical institutions. He also commented on the government’s assistance in the conversion of labour-intensive production, noting that the budget allocated 43.5 billion roubles for this purpose in the past year. Putin also mentioned the government’s intention to support small business. He expressed the hope that about 100 billion roubles from different sources will be allocated to it this year.
The students were most impressed by Putin’s reply to the question of the girl who had already asked him what features he values in people. This time, she wanted to know which of Putin’s personality traits helped him attain such heights. “Love for the Motherland,” he said, adding after a short pause: “If there are really any achievements to speak of.” The students burst into applause.
Salahutdin Buhodjani, the leader of the university’s Foreign Student Association from Pakistan said, struggling for words: “When you were just becoming a politician, journalists asked ‘Who is Putin?’ Now everyone understands that Putin is great.” The audience started laughing.
Putin looked at the young man and said: “You are a foreigner and your vocabulary is not as big as that of a native speaker. I can understand with some reservations why you use such definitions, although I’m still alive, and I think it is too early for me to perceive myself as some incredible celebrity. All of us should work daily, like St. Francis, on the plot of land assigned to us by the Lord, and then we will achieve success. As for ‘great’ or ‘not so great,’ let the future generations decide who did what,” Putin said to the applause of the audience.
Denis Telmanov