Dmitry Medvedev’s speech:

Hello dear friends. I am very glad that today I am able to congratulate all the residents of Vladivostok on their City Day. This is a special day because in recent years Vladivostok has undergone some quite extraordinary transformations.

You know I still remember the first time I came here (it wasn’t that long ago, about seven years ago if I remember correctly) and whatever you say, of course we always want things to improve and quickly, but as someone who doesn’t live here in Vladivostok, I can tell you this much: there have been some big changes. And it makes me very happy that we can mark precisely this holiday, this day when all the city’s residents are celebrating the 152^nd anniversary of the founding of Vladivostok, with a very important event: the opening to traffic of our splendid cable-stayed bridge, on which a huge team of people have worked and which without any doubt, despite the fact that it hasn’t even opened yet, has already become a symbol of the city. I’ve looked at the brochures and now I’m actually here: this splendid bridge has already become a landmark.

I am confident that a huge number of people will use it, people who live in Vladivostok and on Russky Island, and people who travel here, tourists from other parts of Russia and from abroad. And it will simply be a very beautiful piece of engineering, showcasing the engineering talents, architectural inventiveness and creative potential of our people, it will be a fantastic engineering construction. That is why I would like to take the opportunity on this specific day to say that there is still much to be done (the APEC Leaders’ Meeting will take place literally in a few months’ time), so everything we have done over the past few years is of course connected to the holding of this summit, but this is not for the summit, it’s for you, for everybody that lives here. The summit is the reason behind it, but a good one: that is why we have spent large sums of money, very powerful resources have been concentrated, excellent teams of workers put together, teams who are coping fantastically with all the assignments they are tasked with. I am convinced that the quality will be there too. Where there are slight problems we will fix them, we can do that, you know that.

So I am very happy to be able to spend this day with you and to have the opportunity to be one of the very first people to visit this splendid and unique construction.

Thank you very much for your hard work, I am confident that it will be appreciated by millions of people, and most important of all, appreciated by those who live here.

Happy holiday! Happy City Day! Congratulations everyone.