Putin Enjoying Sirius at Sochi After the Call

Meeting with students, graduates and teachers of Sirius and laureates of the Sozvezdie competition and meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Talent and Success Educational Foundation

After dealing with his chore as Russia’s Head Diplomat, President Putin engaged in some chores IMO he’d deem more pleasing, particularly his talk with the youth at the Sirius Secondary Special Music School and laureates of the Sozvezdie competition. In the video, you’ll see a very animated President as he chats with the youngsters and their instructors provide some comedy. The kids pass the microphone around and are very relaxed as they talk with a very pleased President. Prior to their meeting, Head of the Talent and Success Foundation Elena Shmeleva gave her report after Putin’s opening remarks during a meeting of the Foundation's Board of Trustees, and its that meeting whose transcript we’ll read first:

Vladimir Putin: Dear colleagues and friends, good evening!

I am glad to welcome you all.

Almost ten years ago--on June 1, 2015--the Sirius educational Center created on the basis of our Olympic heritage received its first students. I congratulate schoolchildren, students, teachers, coaches, representatives of science and art–-all those who were united and united by Sirius on this milestone date. I would also like to heartily thank its staff and, of course, the head of the Talent and Success Foundation, Elena Vladimirovna Shmeleva, as well as the members of the Board of Trustees for their hard work.

By the joint efforts of many people, a real team of like-minded people, Sirius has become a unique phenomenon for our country. A platform where young talents from all over Russia get ample opportunities for a confident start in life, learn from outstanding mentors, and participate in the creation of advanced technologies and products.

At the same time, it is necessary to move forward–-this is fully in tune with the spirit, the very idea of "Sirius" [The school was created in order to form an effective model for identifying talented children and youth, as well as to carry out targeted training of musicians in the field of classical musical and performing arts, therefore unique educational programs of primary and secondary vocational education have been developed for the school.] . And here it is fundamentally important that it is tightly integrated into the achievement of our national goals, so that its role and contribution to the development of the entire country increases.

This fall, we will meet separately to discuss the results achieved and set new goals. When developing such plans, it is necessary to take into account the ideas offered by Sirius students themselves, its teachers and the community of pupils, many of whom have already achieved significant success in science, culture and sports. Of course, it is important for us that young people actively participate in the fate of Russia, apply their knowledge and talent for the benefit of their regions and our entire Fatherland as a whole. We will continue to support them in this regard.

Let me remind you that starting from 2015, a monthly payment of 20 thousand rubles is received annually by six and a half thousand of the most gifted students, including many Sirius students. Almost all of them work in domestic companies after graduation or have entered master's or postgraduate programs in Russian universities. This is a very good result, which shows that the grant support program has become popular and important for the entire educational process and has become an important tool for developing the country's human resources potential.

But what would you like to mention separately? The right to such monthly incentive payments should be not only for students who have shown outstanding academic achievements, but also for young athletes, musicians, artists, and artisans at Sirius: these are opera and ballet artists, winners and prize-winners of reputable Russian and international creative competitions and sports competitions.

I ask the Government to make the necessary changes to the relevant regulations and legal acts so that the mechanism for distributing grants more fully meets not only the tasks of ensuring technological leadership, but also our cultural and value sovereignty.

Let me repeat once again, breakthroughs in technology, as well as triumphs in the field of sports and art are equally significant for Russia. Therefore, from the very beginning, a special, fully harmonious educational environment was formed at Sirius. Young physicists, mathematicians, hockey players, and musicians study, as they say, under one roof. They attend sports competitions and concerts and, of course, listen to lectures on history, literature, art, and the Russian language. It is the study of humanitarian subjects that helps to educate real citizens, patriots of the country.

Such comprehensive and, I repeat, fully harmonious development of children and young people should be the basis of all levels of national education. And here we must preserve and develop the best traditions that distinguished both the pre-revolutionary and Soviet educational systems.

In particular, it is important that music and fine arts classes are held at a truly decent, modern level. At the same time, of course, not at the expense of increasing the load on children.

I consider it necessary that Sirius, together with leading educational organizations in the field of art, take part in creating a new methodology for teaching these creative disciplines at school. Just now, at a meeting, one of the participants in the first part of our visit to Sirius spoke about this. Later, I would like to discuss these issues with my colleagues from the Administration and the Government–-we are talking about strengthening the teaching of, say, music—we were talking about teaching music in preschool institutions and first grades of school. But as for Sirius, I will repeat once again: there are innovative approaches and practices that are born and honed thanks to outstanding teachers and artists. They must be scaled.

I am sure that Sirius' educational activities have significantly expanded thanks to the creation of a special secondary music school here, where we are currently located. I would like to add that a concert center is also planned to open in Sirius this year. It will become one of the largest and most modern venues for classical art not only in Russia, but, judging by what I have heard, in the world as well.

In this regard, I think it is right to focus on the development of music education for gifted children today, during the meeting of the Board of Trustees, and to consider this issue in a comprehensive manner. This applies to teaching methods, the development of the domestic industry of musical instruments, including children's instruments, and, of course, professional development of teachers in the field of art.

We discussed this topic during our visit to Sirius in the fall of 2023. As a result, a number of additional decisions were made. I would like to talk today about how they are implemented.

A word to Elena Vladimirovna Shmeleva.

E. Shmeleva : Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! Dear colleagues!

I am very glad that today's meeting is being held here, at our new Secondary Special Music School "Sirius". This is because art has always—thanks to Mr Putin, to the fact that we immediately formulated our development model in this way–-always been our basic direction of development. Of the 77,000 children who have completed Sirius programs, 21,000 are graduates of the Art program.

Thus, our fundamental knowledge in the field of natural sciences and mathematics is always supplemented by artistic components, and this has always been the case. This is fundamentally important for the comprehensive development of the individual, for the formation of young people, for their upbringing and the traditional values that we transmit to them in this way.

And of course, our inspiring environment is very important, we really create it with leading experts—Yasuhiso Toyota, who created unique acoustics here, worked with our leading teachers and engineers. This is why these unique and iconic objects form both the image of the federal territory and set our national and–-thank you so much for describing them in this way—world landmarks in the field of culture and art.

This perfection of both architectural and musical performance shapes our children's desire for constant growth, for the development of performing culture, since we are in a music school. It seems to us that this beauty makes a desirable choice in favor of professional music classes.

Therefore, I am very grateful to you, Sergey Pavlovich [Roldugin], Valery Abisalovich Gergiev, Pavel Sergeevich Milyukov, Alexey Alekseevich Shalashov, for taking such a keen part in the creation of our unique objects. And here I will continue: of course, the best teacher is a playing coach.

Sergey Pavlovich's own selfless work, as well as the examples of Pavel Milyukov and Vadim Rudenko–-I introduced you to him today, Mr Putin–-show that Sirius has become attractive for the most talented Russian performers who combine their artistic careers with their teaching careers. And it should become ubiquitous.

If we talk about a complete solution, then, of course, we are ready to use our own example to present a harmonious regulatory model for combining these two important hypostases. And when we open our new concert center–-and the construction is finished, and I invite you in October, I would be very grateful if we hold a meeting and open our concert center, which is already being put into operation—we will definitely raise the issue of creating a symphony orchestra with a youth student internship on the federal territory a group in such a symphony orchestra.

We believe that such groups should be created with all symphony orchestras of the country. This will make it possible to train orchestra members academically and efficiently and will create conditions for teaching activities of existing orchestras–-as Sergey Pavlovich does, and we are very grateful for this. In this case, the new Sirius music School will continue to develop in close cooperation with the country's leading conservatories and philharmonic societies, and the new regulatory model of its work will also help the ten existing secondary specialized music schools in Russia.

Mr Putin, we have already discussed this briefly with Olga Borisovna Lyubimova. With your support, we can develop all this, of course. Why? Because, of course, you said that professional education is a stage where young musicians need to be taught various subjects as comprehensively as possible. Therefore, we use an individual approach: when we pay great attention to the regular concert practice of students and the creation of a creative environment, we interact with leading musicians of the country.

It seems to us that if we continue to cooperate with leading opera and ballet theaters in this way, it will help us create our own ballet school. Svetlana Zakharova has been developing this direction since the creation of Sirius, and Nikolai Tsiskaridze has been working as part of the UME for Performing Arts–-of course, they will help us. That is why we ask you, Mr Putin, to support the construction of the Sirius Ballet School on the federal territory.

But if we return to music, I will note that we listen to children from all regions, both in preschool and at the age of 7-12 years, as you have just seen, because this age is critical for starting training in a number of instruments. In the federal territory, wide opportunities for additional music education have been created at the expense of the budget. In fact, this is a new facet of your proposed model of identifying talented children and–-when we identified them--focused training in the field of classical music and performing arts.

As the National Methodological Center for Talent Development that you have given us, Mr President, we are ready to expand as much as possible the competitions that have proven themselves in these age groups. First of all, the Praktika festival–-we are ready to develop it and invite it to the federal territory.

But when we started building and opening a school, we were faced with the fact that musical instruments are only available on the market to a limited extent. These are either some not very high-quality samples, or very expensive professional tools that are inaccessible to most students. There are practically no musical instruments of the size of three-quarters, or just children's size, especially in the segment of wind and complex instruments: bayan, accordion, which were previously produced mainly abroad and required specialized production.

Of course, this directly affects the effectiveness of children's learning. We believe that along with the primary task of producing instruments and equipping schools, it is important to pay attention to the service, to high-quality, systematic maintenance of instruments that are currently available in secondary special music schools, children's art schools, and children's music schools. And, of course, prepare appropriate personnel and, possibly, extend support measures to service companies.

We have already shown you an exhibition of musical instruments today—this is part of our competition "Constellation". We cooperate with leading manufacturers, and I am sure that we could be useful as an interested partner in the development of the state program to support manufacturers–-both educational and professional musical instruments—and service organizations.

If we talk about fulfilling the instructions of the previous Board of Trustees, I will start with the fact that the tasks of the National Methodological Center include a comprehensive program to improve the quality of natural science and mathematics education.

I would like to immediately mention the role of our university-–- Sirius University of Science and Technology, which we created on your behalf in 2019--in systematically supporting talents who open up new scientific directions, as well as new educational and international programs. This is an interdisciplinary approach, and the work of teachers and researchers is shown in the experimental program.

In this case, one of the students spoke from the specialty today. After the ninth grade in information security, we opened a specialty, and now we are in the second year of recruitment for the program. It is effective on the part of employers and partners. This is how we want to continue, in particular by developing the first water and climate park, a natural park, and a national park.

It seems to us that the development of eco-tourism, architecture, implementation and solutions that take into account environmental issues–-you also answered children's questions today, talked about the environment, about this logic of some kind of environmental choice—and it seems to us that this rational management of natural resources here, in Sirius, should be foundational and grow into a full-fledged national school, setting standards for a new quality of life in harmony with nature and accompanying our graduates.

The exhibition that is currently being presented here is called "Fragile Beauty", and it is dedicated to the conservation of biodiversity, because we are located in the Caucasus, in the subtropical point of Russia, and on this basis we became a partner of UNESCO in 2023. Watercolour drawings and ceramics represent us as a unique point on the map of Russia, including artistic ones.

Under the guidance of leading experts from the Sergei Nikolaevich Andriyaka Academy–-he started this field here—the Union of Potters of Russia, and other creative universities, we would certainly like to draw attention to the problem of preserving biodiversity in the face of environmental challenges and unite the world's youth. This exhibition has already been hosted in Abu Dhabi this year, and we are preparing to visit New Delhi and Astana.

This "Talent Summit" together with the National Symphony Youth Orchestra, which was also created on your behalf in 2018, and thank you very much for this project, we are jointly showing the possibilities of our education system and our youth. Here, too, it is very pleasant to note that many soloists of the Russian Symphony Youth Orchestra have started teaching at Sirius.

We think that we have a very popular program "Pedagogy of talent development", which is now scaling up. In the same way, we can establish network interaction with all special music schools and thus increase the number of bright teachers both in these schools and in advanced training programs for music teachers. Thank you very much for this assignment and for being able to expand them all the time.

In what frame of organization? This is the third year that we have been developing a network of Sirius partners on your behalf, we call them Sirius associate partners, and the methodological platforms that we need to improve the skills of teachers: these are the most powerful schools, the most powerful teachers in the country who open their best programs and best practices for professional development, which we conduct in a networked way throughout Russia.

Taking into account the creation of this special music school, we suggest that all ten schools that have already been established and are working should join this network. And taking into account the importance, duration and objective success of this project, we ask you to entrust us with the opportunity to independently determine programs and textbooks in Sirius ' core areas for these leading schools of our network, using the expertise of our national methodological center, namely the foundation.

We also ask you to grant us, the foundation, the status of a basic organization for working with the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions to identify, support and develop talents and to create the same regional center on the model of Sirius—until the moment when it will be possible there. We are also ready to work with the Republic of Abkhazia in this area.

Taking into account our topic of discussion, taking into account the fact that we often talk about the experiment in the context of "Sirius"—starting with the kindergarten experiment—and what was heard today, of course, we believe that we should not miss the opportunity to gain musical knowledge in primary school for all children. And, of course, our specialty classes at the secondary special music school are organically combined with general education.

Everything is done here to ensure that both children in music schools, and children in our regular kindergartens and elementary schools form basic skills for the child's future success. Today, both adults and children discussed this at a meeting with you. But we really believe that" Sirius " was built by mathematicians and musicians–-very similar in this respect. This means that this is a basic need, a basic basis for education.

Of course, the most important task of preschool and primary education is to provide and integrate these creative classes, creative practices: music, fine arts, decorative and applied arts, and, perhaps, theater activities. We will certainly try to implement such an integrated approach as part of our experiment that you have commissioned us to do. at the level of primary school and 5th and 6th grades, when we integrate the creative component into the program as much as possible, we include regular practical classes in music, visual arts, and theater.

And, of course, we will train teachers who are familiar with such methods of integration into the education and development of creative thinking in children. Because we educate engineers and scientists, and this creative environment, which can only be formed in this way, will certainly expand the potential, on the one hand, for extracurricular activities, on the other hand, for developing abilities, strengthening connections and–-this is very important–-for a positive self-assessment of the child.

And, of course, our program of support for teachers in the field of art should also include expanding the infrastructure: we need to create more places for practicing such practices, maybe build new schools according to new standards. We are also ready to summarize and propose these standards. And we also need to expand access to tools–-we talked about this one way or another today. And, yes, methods—thank you for mentioning this just now—of teaching talented children, identifying talented children.

We already did this in the field of sports two years ago. We have comprehensively reviewed the programs of harmonization of children's sports activities. Today, we actively develop student sports festivals and train professional athletes with leading sports federations using our own methods, developing interdisciplinary sports research.

And I want to end with the fact that a lot of foreign delegations come to us. Almost 1,500 children from 85 countries have already participated in our educational events and programs. Foreign colleges are very actively involved in any events with our leading trainers and teachers, especially in the field of mathematics, natural sciences, and art.

Just the day before yesterday, we finished the Open International Biology Olympiad, which was attended by schoolchildren from 14 countries of the world. In the fall, we will host international Olympiads in astronomy, ecology, climate change, and the Junior Science Olympiad.

The international significance that Sirius is gaining more and more is connected with the continuation of the initiatives of the World Youth Festival 2024 and new scientific and practical student schools. You also said this today: genetics, biotechnology, mathematics, ecology, and architecture. And this, of course, arouses great interest, and this interest attracts more and more foreign schoolchildren and students in general. We have started preparing for the International Festival in 2030.

Therefore, it seems to me that annual international music festivals can become an important direction for the further development of Sirius, developing not only our concert activities, but also expanding opportunities for young performers. They will become a powerful tool for cultural diplomacy and very important, personal, creative ties.

We propose to establish here, on the federal territory, an international festival of culture of the EAEU and BRICS countries, which will become a center for creative exchange and intercultural dialogue of children and teachers from all our friendly countries.

Thank you for your visit, Mr President, and for your attention. [My Emphasis]

The growth of Sirius is fantastic. Putin will give a history of its origin. I linked to the Sirius main page which has an English component, although translating the Russian gives you more information. As noted yet again, educational improvement and expansion is at the top of the National Project list. Here in the Empire, all federal support for education is deemed unproductive and is being gutted while the opposite occurs in the nations the Empire deems adversarial. The Greed of the Few Outweighs the Needs of the Many. And now to the talk that preceded the above meeting:

Mikhail Pirozhenko: Hello, Mr President! My name is Mikhail Pirozhenko. I am 15 years old, I came from St. Petersburg.

Vladimir Putin: Me too.

M. Pirozhenko: I'm a pianist–-just like my whole family. I learned about Sirius from my older brother: I have already been here twice, and I really want to go for the third time this year. I've always really liked the fact that I can communicate not only with musicians like me, but also with guys from other directions.

It is very interesting why these three areas of activity exist at Sirius in general: sports, science and art. And how did the idea of creating Sirius even come about? Maybe you were inspired by something? Any places that look anything like this?

Vladimir Putin: No. Everything was more prosaic: when the Olympic Games ended, the question arose about what to do with these structures and how to use it all. There were a lot of different proposals, and in the end, the idea came to mind that we have traditionally paid such special attention to some areas of training of young specialists in the Soviet Union, and then in Russia, and schools for training specialists have been created starting from a fairly young age of children. These are special, specialized physics and mathematics schools, chemical schools, and then we have biology-biological schools, that is, specialized educational institutions. That's how it started, the idea came up–- to gather guys from all over the country here for a certain time, then they decided that it would be 20 with a little more days—21 days, yes, in my opinion.

E. Shmeleva : 24.

Vladimir Putin: Then I thought: why only natural discipline? We have specialized music schools attached to conservatories, and we have several world-class–-maybe even not only world-class, above-world-class--choreographic schools that train ballet dancers. And so, we immediately expanded, from the first steps, the direction of Sirius' activities. So, it came up, by itself somehow.

I've already talked about this–-how the name itself came to mind. I asked my assistants to name the brightest star in the sky, and they said, " Sirius." Since gifted young people, gifted children, and teenagers should come here, this is how the name "Sirius" came about.

What you see here, what I'm going to look at now, is a derivative of the original ideas, this is already the development of Sirius itself–-the creation of this school, and next to it a concert hall. I hope that all this meets the best international standards, and in some ways even exceeds them.

This was the idea of the Olympic legacy, so that it would serve, serve our country, serve people in the best possible way. In general, I believe that this goal has been achieved. We just need to go further and develop Sirius . The creation of such a music school, where we are now, is a movement in this direction.

I hope that everything will work out for you here, you will enjoy it, and it will help you discover your talent. The place is good, the teachers are great, I hope that the sound is also there—Toyota has also worked on this. Because the sound in such rooms is very important, it's like a musical instrument, as Sergey Pavlovich [Roldugin] says all the time. Sergey Pavlovich keeps telling me what can be said here that is so significant in this matter. The sound in the hall is also like a musical instrument, it should correspond to what is happening here. I hope that this will be the case here, as well as in the concert hall. We'll go down there and take a look, right? Or not?

Elena Shmeleva: Not this time, but it's almost ready, almost ready. And we are already officially inviting you and the guys to its opening in October, and we are very happy.

Vladimir Putin: It looks beautiful. I really hope that everything inside will meet the goals and objectives that we set for ourselves.

Elena Shmeleva: If possible, we have musicians ahead—taking into account the fact that this is a music school. Although there are guys from all directions.

Guys, musicians, please, who else would like to ask a question?

Vladimir Putin: For God's sake, please.

E. Shmeleva: Dasha Malakhova.

Dmitry Malakhova: Hello, Mr President. My name is Daria Malakhova. I am 16 years old and I came from the city of Arkhangelsk. This is the second time I have been to Sirius in the direction of "Musical and Performing Arts".

Since childhood, I was immersed in the world of creativity, and music surrounded me everywhere and everywhere. And when I was three, I went to music school, and when I was six, I went to art school. Now I continue to develop in this direction, and, of course, Sirius helps me a lot.

I would like to ask you, because I know that since your childhood you have been studying the piano and mastered this instrument: please tell me if you manage to play this instrument, if you have such an opportunity? What role do you pay to music in your daily life, despite such a difficult work schedule? And do you think that music is really important, and how did it influence the formation of your personality?

Vladimir Putin: Well, first of all, unfortunately, I have never played the piano, and I regret it, because of course it enriches me. Music, as well as painting, if it is a part of our life since childhood, then it forms a person, forms a personality, forms a worldview, attitude to the world around us and to ourselves. After all, music is harmony, but harmony is what, being present in a person, makes him happy in the end.

You know, I lived in a very simple family, it was far from music, from art, it is a working family.

But somehow it so happened that somewhere in high school I started visiting concert halls, the Philharmonic hall—in St. Petersburg there are places to go to listen to good music--and then gradually, gradually more and more often. After all, this is also an art–-to feel art, to feel music, to understand it, to somehow tune in to this wave. This is an unconscious thing, not so rational, or maybe not at all rational.

But the ability to get pleasure from what you see and hear from painting or from music, it should also be brought up. And I didn't have the same upbringing as you: music school and so on. But St. Petersburg offered such an opportunity, and, thank God, I took advantage of it. So gradually, gradually… Then we were friends with Sergey Pavlovich, he began to invite me to all sorts of events, concerts and so on, and then I went to them without him.

I think that the feeling of music or the feeling of ballet, the feeling of painting, it gradually, gradually brought up in me what, of course, I always needed in my life, supported, formed an attitude to certain events, to certain people. And I think that this is very important as an element of any person's upbringing. We will support this in every possible way, just as we do here and now.

Dmitry Malakhova: Thank you for your reply.

A. Tsukanova: Hello. Vladimir Vladimirovich!

My name is Anna Tsukanova. I am 17 years old, and I came from the city of Barnaul. I am studying in the Musical and Performing Arts program.

I have been playing the piano for 12 years and I am striving to become a professional musician. I understand that this requires a lot of work and improvement, and Sirius helps me a lot in this. This is my fourth and last time here, and each of these times gives a powerful boost to my professional growth, gives me energy and inspiration.

But I also understand that a musician needs not only professional skills, but also personal qualities. One of these qualities is probably leadership, so that you can lead an orchestra and play in an ensemble.

As President, you are the person with the most developed leadership qualities for me. I would like to ask you: are there any ways to develop them? Do you think leadership is given to us from birth or can it be acquired in the process of education, gaining experience? And did you specifically develop these qualities in yourself, or have they always been with you? Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: It is difficult to say whether it is an innate quality or not. Geneticists must determine this. But, probably, of course, this talent is largely inherited. But there are some things that—even if you have an innate talent–-without effort, without investment, are unlikely to give you the opportunity to express yourself as vividly as, say, Mozart had. It is known what was happening in his family, he was practically tormented by these activities. There are many other examples of this kind, when a child fainted, moreover, the mother believed that he died, and then he came to himself and continued to study music. Such incredible hard work, of course, accompanies success, including for very gifted or even brilliant people.

So how can you tell which is more important here: hard work, self-improvement, or innate qualities? For maximum results, for maximum effect, you probably need a combination of both. Of course, we need to work on this, but what about it? So simply, in itself, success will not fall from the sky.

Vladimir Chichilenko: Hello, Mr President!

Vladimir Putin: Good morning.

V. Chichilenko: I am a sixth-grade student at the Sirius Secondary special Music School. My name is Vera Chichilenko and I am 13 years old.

As a child, I loved flying planes and wanted to be a flight attendant. But then sports came into my life, and I dreamed of becoming a master of sports in rhythmic gymnastics. When I was seven years old, I entered a music school with a cello class, and my dream now is to become a professional musician.

What did you dream about as a child: at the age of 5, 10, 15? And what do you dream about now?

Vladimir Putin: When I was 5 or 10 years old, what I was interested in, what I dreamed about: now I don't want to invent anything for you, now it's hard for me to remember what happened when I was five years old–-just vaguely. And I remember certain things, oddly enough. What did you dream about? After all, everything depends on the situation, depends on our level of development, perception of the world around us, on the people who surround you. From there--from art, by the way, from music, from the opportunity to visit museums, images arise, some goals arise, preferences are formed.

The more positive external influence we have, the brighter and more concrete our plans and dreams become. I'm sure I had my own, too. But when I became more mature, when I already chose a profession, everything turned out differently here, I have already said this many times. Boys often choose: I wanted to be a pilot, then a sailor, I chose such heroic professions.

But gradually, gradually, I was formed as a person, as a person. Of course, I was very attracted to the way people act, how people who devote their lives to their country live. That's where the desire to work in the foreign intelligence agencies came from, and then everything went further and came to what I am doing today.

I would very much like you and your peers to have the same way of life, so that you ultimately choose the business to which you are ready to devote your life. Then life will be interesting, and you will achieve maximum results in the business to which you will devote this life.

Pavel Bregadze: Hello, Mr President!

My name is Peter Bregadze, I am 12 years old. I am a musician and I play the flute, I study at this secondary special music school. I moved here last year and now live separately from my parents. Of course, I miss them and communicate with them every day.

What did your family mean to you during your high school years? Maybe there are some episodes from your childhood related to your parents that you remember all your life? Can you tell me if it's not a secret?

Vladimir Putin: I've already said this many times, and frankly, I don't want to repeat myself. But there were, of course, episodes that I still have so vividly in my mind: when I was about the same age as you, and a little older.

You know what is most important and interesting for me, and what, apparently, influenced my character, the formation of me as a person: my parents always made a choice when solving some issues of family life, when solving some issues related to my future, I want to emphasize this in my favor.

And this is something that is firmly in my mind, this is such gratitude to my parents for treating me like this, with such love. This is where love manifests itself, not just in smacking lips, hugging and kissing, although this is also important, it also matters.

But in general, I saw, even, you know, when I made a decision about where to study, which university to choose, and so on: my parents wanted one thing, because it was easier that way, I mean that I was involved in sports and some higher educational institutions were ready to take me almost without exams at all. And my coach, as it were, pushed my family to do this, with the best of intentions. And it was easier that way. But I made my own choice, which looked quite difficult at that time. And when my parents saw that this was my choice, I still remember it, they treated it with great respect and in the end did not bother me, on the contrary, supported me.

And so it has always been, on all issues. They always chose me. I will never forget it and will always be grateful to them for it.

A. Kuzbekova: Good evening, Vladimir Vladimirovich!

My name is Asel Kuzbekova. I am 12 years old, I am a student of the 6th grade of this secondary special music school, I play the violin. My most cherished wish is to learn to play the violin just like my favorite violinist Pavel Milyakov.

And if you caught a goldfish, what would you make a wish for?

Vladimir Putin: Based on environmental considerations, I would simply let the fish go free and not bother it to fulfill my wishes. I would try to formulate my own goals and achieve them.

Are you done here?" Maybe the guys will play something then?

Elena Shmeleva: Yes, but I think we still have some questions.

Dmitry Sakharov: Hello, Mr President!

My name is Daniel Sakharov, I came from the city of Yekaterinburg. I'm 17 years old. In my hometown, I finish my second year at the Sverdlovsk Art School.

Since childhood, I was attracted to nature and everything it creates in this world, and in the future I would like to become an artist who would show people their true, real beginning, which cannot be taken away with the birth of each person. I believe that this could improve the lives and worldviews of future generations. For me, as for all future artists, it is important that their work resonates in the soul of the viewer and carries an idea that could help improve the lives and worldviews of future generations.

And this is a question for you, Mr President. What values do you think contemporary artists should convey? What qualities should a contemporary artist have in order for society to hear him? Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: There is only one biblical value: the most important thing is love. Love for what you do, love for the world around you, for the people who surround you.

I don't know, you know better, you are a future professional artist, as far as I understand, so you should already feel for yourself what moves you, what you want to convey to your audience. This is extremely important. As I understand it, it is not just necessary and important to portray something beautifully, but it is important to convey to people your opinion about how you feel about what you portray: to nature, to man, to anything.

By the way, photography is also creative, but nevertheless it–-boom!-–reflects something, a real object, and the artist still wants to convey his vision first of all to the viewer, to another person. What is important here is not even the object that is depicted, but the attitude of the person who depicts this object or nature, and even a still life. This is also the artist's attitude to what he does. The artist himself, his attitude to the world, is important. This, I think, is the point, and it is not easy to do, as I understand it.

It is important to have a talent for portraying, but it is even more important to be able to convey, to be able to convey to the viewer your attitude to what you are portraying. This is the most important thing, the most difficult, but the most valuable. [My Emphasis]

IMO, the key is to be provided the opportunity to explore your possibilities, to discover whatever innate talent you might have. Billions of people are denied that opportunity which is a detriment to Humanity’s advancement—how many millions of creative people were/are there that never discovered they were creative because they never were provided with the opportunity to discover what their potential. For the vast multitude, success doesn’t “fall from the stars,” but for some who are provided with plenty of opportunities and helped/able to rebound after failure, they are provided with other means that allow them to be successful, not because they have merit but because they have place. Although to be fair, some having place also possess merit and become noteworthy. Later, Putin lets us in on part of his history relative to his upbringing and how it was important for him to have his parents’ support in his life-choice—that they were always for him.

Putin’s closing remarks make me think he was also dealing with how to communicate with an Other, in this case President Trump.

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