Vladimir Putin's introductory remarks: 

Good afternoon,

First of all, I would like to address our veterans. I congratulate you all on the upcoming Victory Day, this historic moment symbolising the Soviet people's victory in the Great Patriotic War. I wish all of you good health and to be always in good spirits and full of happiness.

This is a special holiday for all of us, for every Russian citizen and for myself, because it allows us to remember our parents and episodes of our history, primarily the most wonderful and glorious episodes of our nation's life and a period that left a deep imprint on our historical memory.

The upcoming celebrations make it possible to thank all those who gave freedom and independence to our nation. It is common knowledge that every person and nation regards freedom as the greatest value.

Our country has always cherished the notion of serving the Fatherland. This meeting is special in that it is an opportunity to meet both with veterans and those brought up in the families of present-day defenders of the Fatherland.

This educational establishment plays a unique role in our country. We have long-standing traditions of training military personnel and providing patriotic education. Cadet academies, the Suvorov and Nakhimov schools, have been functioning for a long time. And now the Ministry of Defence has founded a boarding school for girls. This is indeed a historic and positive event not only because the boarding school will train the educators of their own children, but also because women are occupying a worthier and more prominent place in the life of our state, as society continues to develop. This event is associated with the important undertaking in the defence of our Homeland.

Minister of Defence Anatoly Serdyukov and I discussed the creation of this boarding school two years ago when this idea was first proposed. With this, I would very much like the school's pupils to have the opportunity to meet with their peers, namely, boys studying at the Nakhimov, Suvorov and other military academies. Girls must be able to interact with boys, who in turn must be able to interact with girls and treat them with respect. This is an important part of their all-round education.

I know that the Ministry of Defence and the boarding school educators are thinking about this and are planning to introduce various forms of such contacts for everyday life and school life as well. I think this can be accomplished through co-educational study programmes and mixed recreation.

As far as studies are concerned, I would like to thank those who set up this educational establishment, who provided state-of-the-art equipment for its purpose, and who devised and introduced the school curriculum. This gives us every right to say that we expect our pupils to receive the highest marks. I wish this upon you and congratulate you on Victory Day.

I wish you all the very best.