Putin's Meeting with Mothers of Military Personnel – Participants in the Special Military Operation

This amazing meeting took place on 25 November and the Russian transcript was completed later that day, but the machine translation was very poor, one of the worst I've seen that ruined much of the discourse. And I wanted so badly to publish the translation of this seminal meeting that wasn't being well reported or discussed as it demanded. So, I opted to await the official English transcript published by the Kremlin. It's now 28 November, and the English transcript remains incomplete!! I'm incredulous!! Bits and pieces are making their way into op/eds but very few have read the entire meeting. The video (available at the same link as the Russian transcript as well as an audio recording) is nice to see since it provides some details about the formal nature of the meeting that eventually became less formal after the first hour of the meeting's two hour eight minutes. Even if you can't understand Russian, I suggest watching Putin's opening remarks followed by the first woman's response. So, after waiting over three days for the English transcript, I'm feed-up and have decided to publish what is currently available from that transcript as it appears to be maybe 35% complete when compared to the Russian. If it's ever completed, I'll post the remainder and make a note here in my preface that it's finally complete.

It's now December 4, and the English transcript remains incomplete. I'm assuming it won't be completed and have thus appended the machine translation of the Russian transcript and made a note where that occurs below. IMO, about 20% remained.

So, after far too long a delay, Putin meets with War Moms and Wives:

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon once again.

As you know, the day after tomorrow Russia marks Mother’s Day. It is not some pompous noisy celebration but a day that is filled with special, very warm meaning and emphasises the attitude towards mothers inherent in all the peoples of Russia: respect, reverence, admiration.

In this regard, of course, I would like to remember this. But I understand perfectly well that you, as well as so many other women in Russia whose sons are in the zone of hostilities, of course, have a different attitude to this event – not something that would be festive, but, most likely, associated with anxiety and worry, when you think about what is happening to your boys. After all, for a mother, no matter what age her son is, he is always a boy, always a child. And for those, including those of you who are here, and who have lost their sons, of course, this is also related to the thoughts of this tragedy.

In this sense I would like to say… You know I do not have the heart to say formal standard things expressing condolences. But I want you to know that the entire leadership of the country and I personally, we share your pain. We understand that nothing can replace the loss of a son, a child. Especially for mothers, to whom we all owe our lives, who bore and fed us.

I want you to know that we share this pain with you. And, of course, we will do our best, so that you do not feel forgotten, so that you feel the support.

Obviously, life is more complicated and diverse than what they show on television screens or on the internet. One should not trust the internet completely because it is full of various fake stories, deception and lies. The internet is rife with information attacks because information is just another offensive weapon in the modern world, and information attacks are just another effective type of struggle.

We have gathered here, and I have suggested this meeting because I wanted to listen to you and to hear your first-hand assessments: you also receive your information from there. I receive a lot of information from various sources, but your assessments, your opinion, ideas and proposals are an entirely different matter. I will try to make sure that everything we discuss today will be taken into account and used in real life.

That is what I wanted to say in the beginning.

Concluding my brief opening remarks, I would like to say what I have been talking about all the time. First of all, the family is the source of everything. The very fact that most of your children have decided to serve and protect our Homeland, our Motherland, Russia, to protect our people, including those in Novorossiya (New Russia) and Donbass, is also, doubtless, the result of your work. This is not the result of any exhortations or moral admonitions. This is the result of your personal example, and this will always be so.

No matter what they say in school, although this is highly important, the personal example of a person’s parents influences the foundation of his or her self-awareness and his or her basic values. A personal example is the main, most important and most fundamental method of education and upbringing.

Judging by the heroic behaviour of your children, and I wanted to discuss precisely this aspect, this, of course, is your tremendous contribution. This is your contribution, as well as that of your men, your husbands. This is always a two-sided process in every family. However, only they, the young men themselves, know that they are real heroes.

Why so? This is because no one, except them and their immediate superiors, knows how difficult this work is, and how dangerous the risks to one’s life and health are. They alone feel and realise this.

Sometimes I speak with them; I spoke with some of them on the telephone directly. In any event, I spoke with those who surprised me with their mood and their attitude towards work. They did not expect me to call them. By the way, these calls came through their mothers. This gives me every reason to say that they are heroes. This is true.

This is what I wanted to say in the beginning. Let’s have a free discussion. As I have already said, I will certainly try to heed everything that you will say today.

Please.

Suna Nabiyeva: I am Suna Nabiyeva from Daghestan.

My son, Enver, graduated from the Kazan Higher Tank Command School and is serving in Buryatia. He has been part of the SMO from the first days. He was wounded twice and stayed in a hospital. Upon recovery, he returned to his unit.

Sometimes we talk by telephone. When he learned that I was going to meet you, he asked me to send his regards from all his fellow servicemen and say that they will do everything they must do. He said: “My grandfather and two great grandfathers fought in the Great Patriotic War, and I cannot let them down.” His soldiers on the frontline also often recall their grandfathers. They come from all over the country, from different republics. You said recently: “I am a Lakh, I am a Daghestani, I am a Chechen, Ingush, Russian, Tatar…” People in Daghestan heard this and it’s the right thing to say.

Our family comes from the mountain village Dzhaba in the Akhtynsky District. We have a large multi-ethnic family. My mother-in-law is a mother-heroine; she has 12 children. I would like to thank you very much for introducing the high title of Mother Heroine. This is very important for the mothers of Daghestan and Russia.

Vladimir Putin: Ms Nabiyeva, first, thank you very much for the words from your son. I asked from the very start to give our men the most accurate and objective information on the attitude of the country towards their fighting, the performing of their duty.

I hope they will see this meeting, too. Modern technology makes it possible. Of course, radio communication poses a certain risk, and this is why it has certain restrictions, but they will hear it eventually, no doubt about it. So I would like them to see that a mother fulfilled the request of her son and that his greetings are gratefully accepted.

For my part, I wish all the best to your son and his army mates.

Suna Nabiyeva: Thank you very much.

Vladimir Putin: When did he graduate from the command school?

Suna Nabiyeva: In 2010.

Vladimir Putin: I am sure that he is performing his duty well. This is only natural for all Russian soldiers, even more so for the warriors from the Caucasus, from Daghestan. People there are with a special character. I know this very well from 1999 and will never forget the days and months linked with the events in Daghestan.

Daghestan is a multi-ethnic republic and Russia as a whole is a unique civilisation where people of different ethnic origins and various religions live side by side. A unique feature of this life is that over hundreds of years of co-existence, people not only found a common language but also learned to respect each other’s traditions and religions. They have learned to celebrate holidays together and to overcome times of trial together when they come.

So, when I said the words that you just repeated I was simply talking from my heart – it is impossible to write them down, of course. I know this is how it is. I know that people do not divide themselves into separate castes or ethnic groups – all are equal, all help each other, realising that their lives depend on this mutual aid and support. This is a very important point. They are performing their service duty very well, as I have said.

So, thank you very much, thank you for your son. Please give my best regards to him as well, to him and his comrades-in-arms, to all his subordinates.

Suna Nabiyeva: Thank you.

Nina Pshenichkina: Mr President, I am from the Lugansk People’s Republic, from the small city of Kirovsk.

The city is on the frontline. We are fighting and we are restoring everything thanks to the Russian Federation. We are under the patronage of the Irkutsk Region, and they are now restoring 55 facilities. Recently, the governor visited us, my library, my school, and I was here.

It is common knowledge now, but on September 30, we had a great, glorious event – we became Russian Federation regions, something first wave militia fighters were dreaming about.

When my son joined an armed volunteer unit in 2014 he told me: “Mom, I am going to fight for Russia, I’m going to fight for the Russian world, I am going to fight for the Russian word, for Russian memory.” My father fought in the war from 1941 to 1945 and came home with Victory. We have waited for this event for a long time. It has been an uphill road; we have lost many people dear to us, but we did not lose hope that we would be in Russia and would return home. And now this joyful event has taken place.

But my son, Konstantin Pshenichkin, was killed in a morning battle, defending the city. It so happened that the enemy came very close to their position. He jumped out of a trench to draw fire upon himself. His last words were: “Let’s go and chop up the Ukies, guys.” He was awarded the medal For Courage posthumously.

It’s heart wrenching, my soul is frozen, and gloomy memories are overwhelming my mind. My eyes are filled with tears. Suddenly my son begs me: “Mom, don’t be sad, we’ll see each other – we simply have to wait. Live this life for me and in the next life we’ll be together again.”

I looked up and straightened my shoulders and started to do all I could to help the families of the killed militia members. I was trying to get benefits for them. I was a member of the civic chamber. I helped organise the first two referendums. During the second referendum, I was a member of the public commission. Nobody had seen such enthusiasm before. Old women went with flags and sang songs. “We’ll come to you.” “No, we want to come here ourselves. And say ‘hello’ to Putin, please.” They believe we are Vladimir Putin’s envoys. So, I know everything directly, not from hearsay.

Mr President, I’d still like to highlight several issues, if I may.

Vladimir Putin: Of course.

Nina Pshenichkina: We are young regions and we are just entering the legal field of the Russian Federation. The same applies to medicine. We have a problem when examining the wounded. They have to go to so many places and collect so many documents that a healthy person would hardly be able to get. They have to go from Kirovsk to Alchevsk, from Alchevsk to Beloye where the hospital is, from Beloye back to Lugansk. Meanwhile, the military medical commission in Lugansk is only open once a week. How can people from 20 cities and districts get through this examination in one day? And what if a man has lost his legs? How will he do this? Please, instruct the authorities to use one window or send commissions to all these places.

And one more question: commanders are not always attentive in making entries in journals. They write: “sent to hospital” but do not specify what wound a soldier has. Then these people have to prove the obvious even though they have sacrificed their health for the Motherland and have become incapacitated. I know this because people tell me about it.

And one more question. It is simply floating around in both the Donetsk People’s Republic and in our republic. Will the benefits that Russian military personnel or the families of the dead are getting now also apply to the families of the people killed before September 30?

Mr President,

I would like to convey to you our gratitude, support and confidence – we believe in victory, it will be ours – and to wish you the strongest health on behalf of all residents of Donbass, the women of Donbass, the Union of Donbass Women, those mothers that sent their sons to the front.

And since we have gathered here today, I want to say that these are the best mothers, Mothers with a capital M. I would like to pass on to you the fervent greetings from the patient women of Donbass. And you know, ladies, you should be proud of your sons. You have brought up real heroes! All those who are there now are heroes!

I wish you the strongest health, to see everyone come back alive and with a victory!

Happy holiday, dear friends.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you.

Ms Pshenichkina, first about 2014. In hindsight, we are all smart, of course, but we believed that we would manage to come to terms, and Lugansk and Donetsk would be able to reunify with Ukraine somehow under the agreements – the Minsk agreements, which I am sure you know about. We were sincerely moving towards this. But we did not fully sense the mood of the people and all the details. It was impossible to fully understand what was going on there. But, today it has become obvious that this reunification [of Donbass with Russia] should have taken place earlier. Probably, there would not have been so many losses among civilians and so many children would not have been killed by shelling, and so on.

It is good that it happened eventually. And this is happening owing to your son who is not with us and owing to the sons of the women that are here now and owing to our young men who are fighting there now, who are at the frontline, or in the second and third lines – it doesn’t matter insofar as they are in the zone of the special military operation. I am referring to all our soldiers, including those who were mobilised to the Armed Forces. This is the first point.

Now the second point. Of course, it is an enormous tragedy, an empty place with nothing to fill in. You have just spoken about this so convincingly and described with such emotions what happens when your loved one is gone, especially when it is your son.

But you know, one idea occurs to me. I have already mentioned it once. In our country about 30,000 people die in traffic accidents and about the same number from alcohol. Sometimes it happens, unfortunately, that one’s life takes such a turn. Life is complicated and diverse. It is more complicated than something that is written on paper. After all, we are all in the hands of God, Allah or Christ, talking about those who believe in the higher powers. It does not matter what religion they profess. What matters is that we are all mortal, we are all in God’s hands. And one day, we will all leave this world. This is inevitable.

The question is how we lived. With some people, it is unclear whether they live or not. It is unclear why they die – because of vodka or something else. When they are gone it is hard to say whether they lived or not – their lives passed without notice. But your son did live – do you understand? He achieved his goal. This means that he did not leave life for nothing. Do you understand? His life was important. He lived it, achieving the result for which he was striving. This is the first point I would like to make.

Ms Pshenichkina has brought up a very important issue – the operation of social services. Of course, you are right. If there are so many problems you just mentioned in organising trips and with those endless documents, it comes to mind that we in Russia have a “one-stop-shop” service in the civilian sector, which has proven very effective.

It might be harder to introduce the same there because this issue falls within the responsibility of several ministries, including defence departments. The military always do things hush-hush, even where there is no need for secrecy. Military people are present here today and they are probably aware of this. Even when there are no secrets whatsoever, they would still talk about the need to keep things secret.

Of course, this “one-stop-shop” service, even if it falls within the responsibility of civilian and defence ministries, must be put in place to make social services more effective so that they run smoothly and do not create any problems for people, in particular, for the men who have been wounded. I will not just issue instructions and forget all about it. We will see this matter through.

Nina Pshenichkina: Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: This matter might take us some time to deal with because it is not easy to resolve an issue that requires the involvement of the ministries I mentioned, but we will do it. This is my first point.

Now about the benefits. We have recently adopted a law under which the residents of Lugansk, Donetsk and two other regions are entitled to all the benefits we have in Russia. They can, so to say, be backdated to 2014. Whenever we have one or two lawyers, there are at least three or four viewpoints but we will continue working on it and develop a system for issuing relevant benefits.

Nina Pshenichkina: To those who are entitled to them.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, we need to look at it.

I will say honestly, before I entered the room I talked to the Defence Minister and [Deputy Prime Minister] Tatyana Golikova because I realised whom I was going to meet and what questions might be asked. So, I talked this issue over with them in general and now I took notes, so I will be able to give more specific instructions. We will work on this. Agreed?

Nina Pshenichkina: Thank you very much.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you for paying attention to this topic, for caring about other people who are now in the special military operation zone and for thinking about their families. This yet again emphasises a special, as I believe, feature that is inherent in people living in Russia – a multi-ethnic, yet single, people that shares the same values. This is very characteristic of us.

Thank you very much.

Go ahead, please.

Irina Sumynina: Good afternoon.

Irina Sumynina, Krasnodar.

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude for simply being here today. Although I cannot claim any credit for this, I was sent here by our Kuban Cossack army.

Vladimir Putin: Are you a Cossack?

Irina Sumynina: Yes, we have a Cossack family, with four sons. My husband and two of my sons are now on a combat duty, so to say. They volunteered, they were not mobilised. Then again, they joined the forces as Cossacks.

My husband and my older son serve together in the Special Combat Army Reserve [BARS] and the younger one in the special forces, in reconnaissance. Their groups are very close-knit, very supportive of each other, I mean soldiers in the units, in general, not only my men.

Vladimir Putin: I know: BARS are very skilled soldiers.

Irina Sumynina: There is a strong camaraderie there. They help, support each other both physically and mentally, never leave their soldiers behind, even those who were wounded or killed. They even have to drop their equipment, like tactical gear belts and body armour to lighten the burden and to be able to carry their comrades and weapons, of course.

In this regard, I would like to mention a major problem of shortage of equipment, especially in the special forces. The Defence Ministry provided clothes and boots, but there is… I can speak for my younger son. He serves in a reconnaissance unit, so he needs a special uniform: light, warm, suitable for various seasons and in different colours. But they do not have camouflage suits… My older son is a sniper, he does not have a camouflage suit, he has only one uniform, the one he was given. In fact, the uniform gets worn out quite fast, because the trenches are muddy, wet and cold, and lighting a fire there is prohibited. Many soldiers fall ill, of course. But what is the point? The point is to have the uniform available as close as possible so that the old uniform can be swapped for a new one quickly and easily, as they get worn out very fast. Even the tactical belts. My husband is a machine gunner, in a matter of just several months all of his ammo carriers have become worn out, and he has to carry ammo tins.

And another major issue. There is a host of homeless children in the combat area when new territories are being liberated, there are very many of them. The good news is that our soldiers are fed very well, so there are no problems with that. And they constantly share their food with the locals, especially children. These cookies, sweets and so on make them very happy.

I am aware that the efforts to find these children and help them and families, are underway, and they must not be abandoned, of course. But the work on providing aid to these children should probably be stepped up. Moreover, resort houses in the Krasnodar Territory will be vacant now – they could, at least, be taken there, as it is very cold and wet in the area, there is no light, no water, no food. That is a big problem.

The guys have great team spirit, they are positive, keep their chins up. Each and every one of them understands that they are where they belong – this is what they are. They say that they even love to have a laugh to relax sometimes.

Vladimir Putin: Well, the Cossacks are a special caste.

Irina Sumynina: Yes, you are right of course. I forgot to mention, our atamans constantly fill up cars with humanitarian aid, trying to make deliveries at least once a month. We are all taking part in this, of course – we get together and send boxes with sweets and pryaniki [gingerbreads] for children. Because our soldiers do not need this as much as the children.

Vladimir Putin: The Cossacks swapped horses for cars and are using them successfully.

Irina Sumynina: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: But I would like to reiterate, this is a very special caste. They have always been in a class of their own throughout Russian history, they have always been servicemen, always on combat duty and always in the front – this is obvious. It has always been this way in the history of Russia. They were in the vanguard because from the very beginning their primary task was to protect the borders. And later, over the course of the country’s development, the borders were extending but they continued to serve the Fatherland in various ways.

The fact that they fulfil their duty to the Fatherland is traditional, on the one hand, but, on the other hand, it shows that nothing goes away.

Irina Sumynina: This indicates that the Kuban Cossacks take an active part in the special military operation.

I would like to mention another thing about the family. We should try to be an example of how to raise children. Not only by talking the talk somewhere but by setting an example. My husband has been working with children at school for 13 years, he is a Cossack mentor. The children were raised in this spirit, their fathers fostered their interest in military science with regular hiking and shooting with the Cossacks in our military unit.

I am nervous and emotional, of course. You forget everything in such a situation.

Olesya Shigina: They were not born with a silver spoon in their mouth.

Irina Sumynina: No, they were not.

My husband was in Crimea and in Novorossiya in 2014, and he was awarded decorations. He was in Donbass last spring and summer, and he has been decorated for that too. And our sons could not just sit at home, seeing what their father is like. This is a personal example set by my husband.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, definitely. This is exactly what I started with: everything comes from the family.

Irina Sumynina: I can confirm that.

Vladimir Putin: First, there are several Cossack units, not only the Special Combat Army Reserve.

Irina Sumynina: Yes, Kuban is one of them.

Vladimir Putin: The fact that it is headed by the supreme ataman is very important, too. I am aware of that and we will do our best to render support.

You have two sons on duty, it is time for one of them to come back, at least for a vacation.

Irina Sumynina: They offered him a vacation now but he said: “I will not leave, because my fellow soldiers are there.” And he is a group commander. He said: “I will not leave, I am staying.” I pray to God, he will be allowed to leave in January. Otherwise, he will not leave.

My youngest is 17 years old, and I am terrified to imagine that he will go to serve as soon as he turns 18.

Vladimir Putin: No need, that is enough.

Irina Sumynina: And everyone tells him: “You were left here to take care of your mother, so do it.”

Vladimir Putin: Yes, of course.

Irina Sumynina: But there is no stopping him.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, but I believe that one of your sons needs to come back too – they have been fighting for a while.

Look, it is obvious that you are a Cossack because you are aware of such tactical details as body armour, assault vests, ammo carriers, tins. This is special terminology. You get it from them, from your men.

As for the clothes. I was glad to hear that the situation with the equipment and food is back on track. Is the information about uniforms up-to-date?

Irina Sumynina: Yes, it is. How do I know? When such things happen with my son, when they abandon everything, and he simply writes to me: mom, I need this, this and this. Fortunately, we have good shops in Krasnodar where you can buy all of these things.

Vladimir Putin: I see. The Defence Ministry tries to organise this work as efficiently as possible, taking the seasons into account. You can believe me, I am absolutely sincere and I say this as I look you in the eyes: I discuss this at every meeting with chief officials of the Defence Ministry, practically every day. Every day. We will monitor the developments in the next few days but I made a note for myself.

Irina Sumynina: Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: The second important thing – you mentioned homeless children. Russian social services have been deployed to these areas only recently, and they were not there before.

Irina Sumynina: Yes, of course.

Vladimir Putin: As far as I understand, there was not much before, but this work is gaining momentum. And this is what I thought while I was listening to you: simply initiating the work of social services is not enough; what they need is to take some special measures to search for these children and support them. We will definitely work on this.

Irina Sumynina: Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you for bringing this up as well as the equipment issue.

Irina Sumynina: And of course, the Cossacks of the Kuban Cossack army asked me to send you their regards: “Lyubo!” [an exclamation of the Cossacks’ approval]

Vladimir Putin: And thanks very much to them, for their service and allegiance to the Motherland.

Irina Sumynina: Thank you. I will tell them.

Yelena Nikulnikova: Good afternoon, Mr President.

My name is Yelena Nikulnikova and I am from the Tula Region. I have brought you hugs from the women and mothers of our region and firm handshakes from our men. They asked me to tell you that the people are with you and support you.

I am a mother of a guards corporal who is serving in a reconnaissance unit. He was on a different trip at the beginning of the special military operation and he regretted being away from the Motherland. But from the very first days he told me that he would head to the front lines after returning home and resting for a couple of days. And there was no doubt in his words whatsoever, and this is right. Because the duty of every man is to protect his Motherland. Exactly like his father, who is no longer with us, but he spent 25 years serving to his country. He also went on combat tours and was a combat veteran. Just like his great-grandfather, who protected the Fatherland during the Great Patriotic War from 1940 to 1944, and in September of 1944 he personally led a battalion into attack, was wounded in combat and consequently died from the wounds and was buried in Ukraine. He was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, I degree, and the Order of Alexander Nevsky. He was a little older than my son is now: he was 26.

Our sons are defending our Motherland in the epicentre and we are doing our best to support them on the home front. Our Governor Alexei Dyumin, you know, he took the mobilisation effort not even as the head of the region but as a father who personally controls all the processes with equipment for the draftees, all training processes for the mobilised soldiers, which we are extremely thankful for. And we, ordinary people, do not stand aside. Stations to collect support for mobilised soldiers have been opened in each city, practically in every village. I have personally seen how everyone wants to take part and support our soldiers. Nine cargoes were sent in different directions even from our small town.

I absolutely agree with the previous speaker, Irina Sumynina, who spoke about lost things and bureaucracy preventing their quick replenishment. And the procedure for writing off both the destroyed vehicles and personal things has become outdated too.

Plus there is something I would like to add – the issue is a bit different though, it has to do with quadcopters. All units fighting at the frontline must have them in stock, and not only special units.

In conclusion, I would like to thank you once again on behalf of all mothers who love our country and on behalf of women for your efforts to take care of women who raised sons to defend our Motherland.

Vladimir Putin: Everything the mother said is true.

As for the drones, quadcopters and so forth.

We are well aware of this issue and we are working on it, and the industry is working on it too.

Unlike those we are having to face, and, in a sense, we are not just dealing with them but with the people who are supplying them with all these things and paying them, using them like cannon fodder. I am not exaggerating – they are not counting their losses at all. And those who do not behave the way they should, as they believe, are shot down in front of the unit formation – something our soldiers have witnessed – and the bodies remain lying on the ground, they do not even collect the bodies of those executed servicemen.

There was a case recently – five soldiers were shot down right in front of a unit – those who refused to move forward or abandoned their positions. There is a totally different moral atmosphere there. This shows once again that we are facing a Neo-Nazi regime – without exaggeration. I am saying this not to call someone names but in response to their behaviour. Nevertheless, what matters is that we perceive ourselves as human beings and feel that we are doing the right thing, protecting those of our people living in the areas that became part of the Russian Federation. This should have been done a long time ago, judging from what Ms Pshenichkina said. They waited for it for a long time.

As for the procedure for writing off property and so forth – I noted this down, and we will see. But first of all, this has to be connected with the replenishment order. We will consider all of this. I will tell Mr Dyumin what you have just said. I will see him today, we have a working meeting scheduled.

Thank you very much.

Yelena Nikulnikova: Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much.

Maria Kostyuk: I am Maria Kostyuk, mother of an officer, senior lieutenant Andrei Kovtun, who was in the combat zone from the very beginning of the special military operation. As he says, he went to fight and protect us from fascist non-humans, but then, when he returned, he continued and said, “As long as I am there, they won't come here.” “Because,” he says, “if you (as a mother, I somehow tried to say that anything can happen in life, and I can accept any of your decisions, for which I received a quick, harsh answer) knew what they were doing there with women and children, you would not even think about this. As long as I am there, they will not come here. You are here, and my wife, my son, so the boys and I are there.”

At first, he led a company in the 40th Engineer Regiment. This is that very crossing of Seversky Donets, which they bridged several times; the famous one. He returned home, and on July 29 he turned 26 years old. He was delighted that he was celebrating his birthday at home for the first time in 10 years, and on August 4 he again departed for the combat zone, now as a company commander in the 74th motorised rifle brigade, and on August 10, a reconnaissance group was ambushed near the village of Spornoye in the Donetsk People's Republic, and, having received a call for help, Andrei, with his characteristic independence and confidence, rushed to help and covered the direction of fire with his infantry fighting vehicle and his own body.

He saved the miners and was killed in the effort; but they are alive thanks to him. You know, when a video was played in the American media for a week after his death that they had killed Senior Lieutenant Andrei Kovtun, I finally, probably, accepted his decision that he could not have done it differently. And faith has now taken root inside, faith in his work, which he did for life, for life, and, in our case, at the cost of his own life.

And today as a mother – and I say to all our women, our mothers that today we are the first who should set an example of how to appreciate the achievements of our sons, to not belittle them and, above all, to live. To live, no matter how painful or bitter it is, to open your eyes every day and to go on. To live, and to help others live and to teach them to live and appreciate this life, for which our men have fought and are fighting now.

Pain does not choose between an entrepreneur, a teacher or an official: it hurts people. Here I am, the mother of an officer, but I am the Deputy Chair of the Government of the Jewish Autonomous Region. I am an official, about whom they write every day that we are hiding our loved ones from the special military operation, that we are trying to sabotage the mobilisation. I do not know where they see this, where they see such officials; I know only completely different examples.

The boys are performing their military duty, and here, on the home front, we need to perform our civic duty. Because my son defended his Motherland, but every one of them has a lesser Motherland in their souls. Every boy who is there now has a lesser Motherland: their courtyard, their home entrance, the road they walked to school. And when they return, what will they see?

I believe they should see a new country. They need to see the country for life in which they are fighting. They need to see it improved, developed and clean. And probably we need to do everything we can to achieve that. Maybe increase the funding of programmes ten-fold, or get together and join local communities, but we need to change the country for them.

If you allow me, I have just two examples. Everyone says on social networks and in the media that Moscow and other big cities became empty when the mobilisation was announced. There were queues in our cities. A line of people stood at the military commissariat early in the morning in the small town of Teploozyorsk in the Jewish Autonomous Region. Half a team came from the cement plant and asked, “Take us with him (the conscript). He is small and scrawny, he will not be able to do it alone, we will go with him.” Isn’t this proof that we need to do better for them?

Or, during joint training in the village of Bidzhan, a conscript named Mikhail approached Governor Rostislav Goldshtein, and asked him to talk to Mikhail’s wife. Everyone got tense and wondered what he could be asking him to say to her. He says, “She is collecting medical records that say I am poor service material. She does not want to listen to anyone, so please talk to her. I will not go back; I want to go with the guys. And then I will come back together with them.” So, these are the people we need to do everything we can for.

You know, the special military operation has truly united us all. So many people are taking part in civil activity and volunteering, I really appreciate that it is being supported and, God willing, continues to be supported. Because we have replaced the iron curtain with iron doors, we hid ourselves in our apartments and lost each other. And today it is such a real, large, powerful boost to this activity.

First, I would like to make a request, if I may. We need to organise commemorative sites, memory gardens, memory places of sorts, or name art objects after our heroes, lay out parks, and not listen to those who write and say “we will do it when all this is over.” Why? Are we ashamed of our heroes? Or are we doubting our victory? Who doubts? Here we are, mothers, and there are millions more of us, we can explain to every resident of our country and other countries what this victory is and what price we pay for it. And that it will be ours. Bring me those who are in doubt.

And I would like to add, that… Of course, I would put stars on these heroes’ doors like they did during the Great Patriotic War, as a sign of respect from society. And the veterans who returned, they need to go to the military commissariats. Why? Because they know the value of life and they know that there is a person with a story behind each battle unit. To avoid cases when a 25-year-old widow goes to the military commissariat, she is lost and does not know what to do. And they say to her, “Do you know how many women there are like you? Come back next month.” And the girl feels lost. And then these girls unite in, pardon the expression, widow kingdoms, of three or four people. They are 24–25 years old, and they are already lost. They hire some military lawyers. But for what? We need to show them that their husbands were heroes, we value their contribution and support their families.

It is good that there are guys there, they help them by bringing food and helping to take care of the children. But then they go back behind the contact line to continue working and doing their duty. What should these girls do?

They cannot receive pensions because it takes at least three months to receive the certificate, I can testify to that. Our regional commissariat has already joined the programme, but we cannot even receive a certificate confirming that my daughter-in-law is not receiving a benefit there. But she has me. And those girls who do not have anybody, how are they making it? What do they feel? Their husbands gave their lives for our country.

I actually believe that special military operation veterans, those who are coming back, should come to speak at schools every day. Because it is they who know the meaning of life, who can openly explain who a hero really is. They can create a true image of today’s heroes, you know, the hero of our time. They can do it. Not everyone can, but these men can.

I have one more request, if I may. There are horrible cases where on social media there are chats where members of the Ukrainian CIPsO [Centre for Information and Psychological Operations] and our foreign agents – ours, why ours, God, why did I say that – misinform our mothers. By appealing to their anxiety and hitting where it hurts, they convince them to talk to their sons and tell them that they should give themselves up as prisoners, leave their place of service and the military operation.

They tell them to go there and promise to give them their sons, release them from captivity or return their bodies. They write to them in chats pretending to be mothers too. What do our mothers do? They give their son’s current phone number and tell them where he is now and then this place gets attacked. While writing in these chat groups, they indicate the specific sites of dislocation of a unit or a squadron where their son is serving. And then it gets attacked and her son dies along with other sons, husbands, brothers and fathers. It is a horrible thing, and I feel that we need to work with these mothers.

We are ready to help in this situation. But I believe that we cannot do without such an important agency as the Ministry of Defence. Because it is necessary to nip such things in the bud, it is necessary to educate the relatives and save the mothers, help them, and support them and explain that the situation is completely different from what they hear.

You know, I think my colleagues in other regions agree with me. We are ready to work 24/7 in this area because it is a very important thing. I am speaking today as a mother and as a person who works for the government because there is and will be assistance, care and support. And we are ready to provide this.

I should stop now, I can talk a lot about this; it is a hot button for me.

Vladimir Putin: First, Ms Kostyuk, I would like to point out something. You spoke about the heroes of our time. Lermontov had a different hero. He had an eternal spleen, he lacked something, he doubted. After all, he was sorry that he interfered in the lives of honest smugglers and so on and so forth.

Your son is different, and here are the mothers of those men, who are real heroes in the truest sense of the word. This is the first thing.

The second is about what happened. You see, he is a real hero, your son. He consciously did what he died for, what dedicated his life to.

I once said, “For one’s friends.” You know, there are things like this everywhere – in the Bible, in the Torah, in the Koran, do you see? Indeed, only a person with such an upbringing and with such an attitude towards his neighbours and towards the cause he serves could do what your Andrei did, judging by what you said.

Maria Kostyuk: The guys told me.

Vladimir Putin: The guys told us, all the more so. They cannot deceive, these are not fake stories from the internet.

Regarding what you said about families and military enlistment offices. Still, all of us – big bosses, lower officials and ordinary people – are one people, no matter what position or post we hold. And there are always different people, and there are different officials: there are those like you and your family, and there are people in some departments and in military enlistment offices, who – and you just spoke about them with indignation – treat the families of our servicemen condescendingly or bureaucratically, casually and coldly. Therefore, our task, of course, is to get rid of such people, and this kind of communicating with people.

In this regard, of course, what you are doing, what Ms Pshenichkina is doing, and what many of those present are doing, is very important. It is very important to rip off this “skin of indifference” from the officials at various levels, from some state agencies. We must do this.

Frankly speaking, I asked you to get together today so that it would be clearer to me, too, where the problems are. Of course, I know much of what you are saying, almost everything. But it is one thing when you know something from paper reports, or even from the oral reports of your colleagues, and another thing when you learn it directly from people like you, from life, you see. It matters.

So, it is right and good that you are talking about this, and it is even better that you are doing it. Thank you for this. I know that there are various initiatives, various public groups are created. They are essential for us to be more efficient. Ultimately, if we do as you propose, it will lead to more effective work and to the achievement of the result, which you also mentioned, for the country to be different. We should all work together in this direction.

As for the enemy’s actions, and your guys are fighting directly with the enemy, which is directly opposite, but there are also enemies in the information sphere, too. When you say that they are trying to convince someone of something, to throw in some false information, to induce people to take some action. What action? They induce people to take destructive action, which would nullify and discredit that for which your son gave his life.

That is why this is done: to devalue what our guys are doing, and, in my opinion, to devalue our very noble efforts to defend our people in Donbass, in Zaporozhye, in Kherson. That is what they do: devalue all our efforts and what our guys are doing; they are trying to devalue, compromise and ultimately achieve their goals. And we, as you rightly said, as everyone here says, must achieve our goals, and we will achieve them, no doubt.

As for being attentive to servicemen, including the injured, so they can work in enlistment offices, for instance, there is such a team. The Defence Ministry is doing this and will continue to do it, but this is not enough. I think we need to develop a separate programme for the men who need additional support related to future employment. We need to develop a separate programme, and we will do this.

Maria Kostyuk: Thank you very much.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you.

Irina Tas-ool: Good afternoon.

Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon.

Irina Tas-ool: Mr President,

First, I want to thank you for the compassionate attention and support you are giving our men.

I represent the Republic of Tyva. My elder son is serving in the 57th Motorised Infantry Brigade of the Khabarovsk Territory. On March 7, he began to take part in the special military operation. As I learned later, on April 30 he was seriously wounded. I learned about this on May 7. First, he said he had simply caught a cold. Of course, I understand that he did not want to upset me. A few days later I managed to get hold of our deputy from the Republic of Tyva and asked him for help as I wanted to learn more about my son’s illness.

My son stayed over six months in hospital – five months in the Vishnevsky Hospital in Moscow and over a month in a hospital in Khabarovsk. Currently, he is at home in the Republic of Tyva. He received aid in the form of follow-up care at the Serebryanka health spa in the city of Kyzyl.

As the mother of a wounded serviceman who needs extensive treatment, I am concerned about the development of the system of rehabilitation for wounded servicemen and support for their families. I would like a targeted programme to be developed to provide aid not only for wounded servicemen but also for their families, because their mothers, wives and children did not have to deal with this before and not everyone knows where to apply and who is in charge of this. It takes some families, shall we say, a long time to resolve this issue.

Also, in 2020, in keeping with your instructions, a medical diagnostic centre was built in the Republic of Tyva with a focus on efforts to protect people from the coronavirus, and this centre did quite a lot to help and support people during the pandemic. However, the morbidity rate has been brought to a minimum now, and I hope this centre would be given the status of a military hospital, so that after returning home, in our case to Tyva, the servicemen know where they can receive treatment and follow-up care.

Also, as you have just said, it would be good if they were assisted in finding jobs. When signing the contract, my son believed he would be a serviceman and devote his whole life to this occupation. When on October 25, 2022, the military commission deemed him unfit for military service he had to start thinking about employment. These men should be invited to work at military registration and enlistment offices or in the education system where they can teach students to be patriots of their country. They could work as consultants at military enlistment offices because they have a lot of experience under their belt.

I would also like to express our gratitude to the government of the Republic of Tyva that has also provided aid to the families of the mobilised men and we, ordinary people, are thankful for it.

Thank you for your attention.

Vladimir Putin: Good.

Ms Tas-ool, first, we will see what we can do to help you. Generally, Ms Kostyuk already spoke about the need to invite these men to work at military enlistment offices, in particular, those who have been wounded. We will do precisely so. This is my first point.

My second point is that you have taken a broader view of the matter. In general, we need to consider this issue and create not just a system of follow-up care. The [Defence] Minister says that the overall capacity of military hospitals is at 38 percent full, however, the civilian healthcare system is ready to accept our servicemen, including follow-up care. We will certainly get back to this, so that the men can receive follow-up care not only at medical institutions run by the Ministry of Defence but also at civilian healthcare institutions as soon as they are ready and willing to accept these men, in particular, those who have been wounded. The two ministries should coordinate their efforts in addressing this issue. We will do it and will be tapping the potential of the domestic healthcare system on a wider scale. This applies to regional, republican and federal centres.

Of course, we need a special rehabilitation programme in the broad sense of the word, including retraining and employment. There is definitely a need for retraining. We need to examine this issue thoroughly. I took notes and we will do it.

Irina Tas-ool: Thank you.

Yuliya Belekhova: Mr President, I am Yuliya Belekhova. I am head of the Popular Front’s Moscow Region branch. I am a mother of many children. My eldest son was mobilised in October.

We discussed matters of supporting our soldiers’ families on November 2 during the Civic Chamber-sponsored Community forum. The forum brought together public organisations and volunteers and was held at the Museum of Victory on Poklonnaya Hill, which is a signature spot. Today, we covered at length the help provided by volunteers, which we need, and the We are Together project, which is also quite helpful.

We spoke about supporting our soldiers’ families. The dialogue was anything but simple, because almost everyone attending had either immediate family or relatives either in the special military operation zone or in formal training camps. Everyone came to the same conclusion: family is the source of information for our military. Who will a soldier call? Without a doubt, he will call his mother or wife. In fact, the family is the first to learn about the frontline soldiers’ needs and concerns.

On the other hand, we understand the difficulties that these families are facing. Mostly, it is about psychological, material, economic, organisational and information help. Ms Kostyuk was right when she mentioned information help, because today we must protect our families from attacks. We must save them and help them.

During the forum, we arrived at the conclusion that we need to work together and organise our efforts in order to improve the assistance provided to families and military personnel. We decided to create a Fatherland Warrior Families’ Committee and the leading Russian organisations – Women of Russia, the Union of Military Families, the Union of Women of Russia, and Mothers of Russia – acted as sponsors. Clearly, it is not an easy thing to do, because there are many issues that need to be addressed today.

We have already reached out to Commissioner for Human Rights Tatyana Moskalkova, but Mr President, we really need help in starting a dialogue with the Defence Ministry, because families have many questions for them.

Of course, these are issues of support, too, that have been discussed just today; issues of missing persons, and also issues when they do not get in touch. It is not a matter of three days or a week, when it is no longer just worry and concern in the family; and, of course, there are questions that must be answered. Today, it is a question of interaction with the Ministry of Health, and interaction with the social block. That is, everything that worries both families and soldiers today.

Of course, we have already begun this work, and our mothers have connected to the Popular Front hotline because we understand each other like no one else, we understand what we are talking about.

Of course, we will be organising New Year celebrations for children in families with a parent in the special military operation. We plan to set up committees in the regions, because there are a lot of issues there that can only be addressed at the regional level. And we have just announced that we will establish a committee, and we have already received requests.

One of them was from Khakassia, where, unfortunately – Nadezhda Uzunova is here – shall we say, the attitude towards families and the explanation of issues of regional support measures there was not quite right. It is necessary to speak honestly and directly and provide tools, among other things: where to apply and how if this assistance is not received for some reason. Therefore, of course, there are questions, and, most importantly, we want to become part of the solution, not part of the problem; we want to help. And here, Mr President, comes our very big request to support us in our work.

No less important is that we definitely need specific people assigned to us from every ministry and department that can answer questions and make decisions. Today we need to do everything promptly, without red tape, without delay. So, we have this request.

And, of course, thank you very much for your trust, because today I am a member of the HRC, the Human Rights Council, and I think this will help in the implementation of the plans that we have today, namely in helping both families and soldiers.

Vladimir Putin: Ms Belekhova, is this the official name, Committee of Warriors of the Fatherland Families?

Yulia Belekhova: It is.

Vladimir Putin: Is this official? Is it a registered legal entity?

Yulia Belekhova: Yes, it is formally established. You know, our committee is very transparent. There are a great number of impromptu organisations that are not formally established, but our committee exists officially, we have official legal status. We will not disappear tomorrow like some social media groups, leaving families without answers. These groups are just part of some sort of information war. But we exist officially as a registered legal entity. And our mothers are already helping today, answering questions and sharing the information and experience they have.

Vladimir Putin: You know, I will issue instructions to the Executive Office and the Government, as you asked. They will reach out to you to offer support. We will certainly do that.

Yulia Belekhova: Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: In the course of your work, you may deal with matters that require special attention and assistance from administrative bodies. It is difficult for me to tell now what kind of matters. I have a general idea about the issues that may arise, but each specific case needs an individual approach.

Overall, this is a case-by-case effort. It is most effective when, instead of general methods, one works individually with a specific person or a specific family. Each case is unique when it comes to family make-up, family problems, social status, living conditions, getting all the necessary forms of support available by law and sometimes extraordinary forms of support, especially at the regional level.

I do not know if you have noted or if you see it on television when I have any public events (I do not have time to watch how they are covered), but at every meeting with the regional officials, I either begin or end by requesting that my colleagues in the regions be attentive and personally involved in the lives of the families of our service personnel. I always request this. In the majority of cases, I know that not only in Moscow and St Petersburg but in smaller cities as well, in almost every region, the local officials are working on this.

Frankly, it was strange for me to hear that the situation is different in Khakassia. We will look into the actual state of affairs there because it is a very important effort, without a doubt.

You have correctly said, I even wrote it down, that all first-hand information comes through families. It is their families that our personnel text and call when they have the opportunity. It is the family that receives the most objective information about what is happening and what kind of help and support is needed.

Of course, we will be helping you, absolutely.

Yulia Belekhova: Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: We just need your contact information. I am sure somebody will take your phone number an so on.

Zharadat Aguyeva: I am Zharadat Aguyeva, and I came from Chechnya. I am a mother of two soldiers who are fighting on the front lines. One is battalion commander Ismail Aguyev, battalion West, and the second is head of the Kurchaloy District Interior Department.

Our sons went there voluntarily the first time. Now, they are on their second tour with their unit. Ismail is wounded, his leg is still hurting, and he uses crutches or a cane to walk. He is fighting in Donbass. They are in Maryinka. I am proud that my sons went there for the first time voluntarily. I have no regrets about them being there.

Our President Ramzan Kadyrov provides them with everything they need, such as clothes and footwear. Ramzan Kadyrov provides their wives and children with food. He is providing humanitarian aid not only to the military, but even to the Ukrainian people. Our president is very proud of our boys and makes sure they have everything they need. He does not leave the families of the sons or husbands who are in the special military operation zone unattended. We do not have any homeless children in Chechnya, starving or needy people. Our president provides all mothers with everything they may need. Our boys are doing just fine.

I am a proud mother. I have one more son at home. If he needs to go, I will let the third one go as well. This is their second tour. Our boys from Chechnya have all their needs met. Basically, they have everything they need. Our president is the best, I think. I am not talking about the President of Russia. We have a special feeling for our president. I am grateful to Putin and the late Akhmat-Khadzhi for doing everything they could to end the war in 2000.

We survived two wars; I know what I am talking about. One of my sons went missing during that war. Now I have three sons. I am proud of my nation and my people – all of them. We have no one in Chechnya who is starving, needy, or walks around asking for alms. He constantly provides everyone with everything they need, all the boys and their mothers; he does not leave them unattended. He provides everyone with what they need. I am proud of him.

Thank you too, Putin, that you and Akhmat-Khadzhi Kadyrov helped our people very much to stop the war.

That is all I have to say about that.

Vladimir Putin: Ms Aguyeva, thank you for your kind words. The merit for what happened on Chechen land and the normalisation that took place goes to the Chechen people and Akhmat-Khadzhi, who gave his life for his people.

Zharadat Aguyeva: Yes, his people.

Vladimir Putin: For the Chechens. He gave his life for that.

I will see Ramzan Kadyrov soon. I have a working meeting with him, and I will let him know what you said.

Zharadat Aguyeva: He is very supportive of his people. Whatever he says – all our boys, my boys, I think, will lay down their lives for him, for his word. This is their second tour on the front line.

Vladimir Putin: The fact that your two sons are fighting there is great.

Zharadat Aguyeva: I have two grandsons there as well. There are also my husband’s relatives with our surname, nephews, a cousin, and four more with our name, the Aguyevs, there are many of them.

Vladimir Putin: You can tell your third son that the Commander-in-Chief has ordered him to stay home. Let him control the situation in the family.

Zharadat Aguyeva: I told those two to leave the third son alone; we need the third one here at home.

Vladimir Putin: I will also tell Ramzan now that the third one should stay home to oversee the family.

Zharadat Aguyeva: And so we thank you, thank you very much.

I am very grateful to my President, my people and my nation for not forsaking us, for helping everyone. There is no time that he does not help us somewhere or that we really lack something. You can come to Chechnya any time to find out if my words are true or not.

Vladimir Putin: I know the difference between Grozny today and the Grozny I saw from an attack helicopter flying over the city in 1999 and 2001.

Zharadat Aguyeva: Yes, it has blossomed, it is a very beautiful city, the sights are beautiful. It is thanks to our people, to our President.

Vladimir Putin: I remember Minutka Square: all in ruins, like it was in Stalingrad.

Zharadat Aguyeva: Yes, we did not even think it would be rebuilt like this.

Vladimir Putin: They thought more about relocating the Chechen capital, because some thought it was impossible to restore it, everything was in ruins. Now it is a prosperous, even posh city.

Zharadat Aguyeva: I also have a grandson at a Suvorov Military School. ”Grandma , – he says, – when I am 18, I will also go to war along with my uncles.” I said: ‘Wait, maybe it'll be over, you probably won't get there. ‘No,’ he says, ‘if it continues, I'll go.” He is doing well at a Suvorov Military School, this grandson is 16 now.

Vladimir Putin: Please pass on to your loved ones, to all Chechens, pass on my gratitude for their contribution to the common struggle and for victory.

Zharadat Aguyeva: I am proud of my nation and my people.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you for what you said, for what you have done, raising such men.

Thank you.

Marina Bakhilina: I am Bakhilina Marina, Republic of Sakha. I am also a mother of three sons.

My middle son is a regular military man; he has stayed in since he was called up at the age of 18. He serves in an Airborne Forces reconnaissance unit. He has been in the special military operation from the first days.

Vladimir Putin: Airborne Forces, right?

Maria Bahilina: Airborne Forces, 83rd brigade.

When the special operation began, he was there from the first days. In April he was awarded the Order of Courage.

Vladimir Putin: The Order of Courage is not given for nothing.

Maria Bahilina: Yes. He was shown on TV.

He was very badly wounded. But he found the will, as they say, to recover. He is currently in hospital undergoing rehabilitation and plans to go back in January.

My eldest son was mobilised in September.

But what I want to say, I will be brief, I do not know how to say a lot.

In a word, I raised my sons with patriotism. As they say, the party told you, the Motherland told you, so go ahead. No one shied away from the army; everyone joined the army physically and mentally prepared. They do not hide behind their mother's skirt. The notice came to my son, so he immediately got ready and went to the assembly point. Now he is not far from the frontline in the special military operation. The only thing (well, we correspond rarely, of course) he complains about is food, there is no hot food. Do you understand the problem? If our soldiers cannot be provided with hot meals, then I, as a Master of Sport and a Candidate Master of Sport in shooting, would be happy to go to the front line to cook. I am not joking, really.

Please excuse me, but many mothers here in Yakutsk want to go and help, some as nurses, some as cooks. There is nothing shameful. Some young people are running and hiding… Why are we worse than our sons, as they say?

I wanted to add one more thing: that I would gladly serve, I do not need the money, my pension is sufficient.

The last thing. I would like to convey a huge thank you from the mothers and wives of military personnel to you, Mr President, and to Aisen Nikolayev [Head of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)] and the Magan settlement council for providing material and moral support to our military personnel.

You know, everything has been done so quickly and efficiently. I do not know what it is like in the city, but I go around and collect parcels: it seems that everyone in Russia has received compensation of 200,000 to 300,000, and vegetable packages. In Magan, for example, the administration has responded very well in general: someone needs water, someone the yard cleaned, someone needs firewood, like that. So, many of us are very well provided for. Thank you very much for this, of course.

Yes, and I have a wish for some mothers who hide their children: there is no need to decide for them, the children themselves must do this, and not run away, pay off and the like.

That is all, Mr President. Thank you very much.

Vladimir Putin: Ms Bakhilina, you said that you cannot speak well. Indeed, you can, you do it very meaningfully and intelligibly. But the most important thing is not even what you say, but what you do, and the results of your work are in your sons. This work is of the highest quality and the highest standard, if you have such children. I congratulate you on this and thank you.

As for Aisen Nikolayev, he is an experienced leader, a very sensitive person, he is persistent and able to achieve results. Your republic is great. It is not only huge in territory, it is inhabited by very talented people, different people, different nationalities, the people are very melodious, amazing, and beautiful. Such a wealthy republic.

As for what you said about hot meals on the front lines. It would seem that the issues have already been largely resolved – we just heard that it is likely to be okay, but not everything is okay, in fact. Let us see what needs to be done additionally. This is my first point.

The second. Thank you for your readiness to take part in the combat work of your guys. But I think that the relevant departments in the Defence Ministry should first restore order there. At your initiative, we will deal with this and step up this work, of course. It is not the first time I have heard this, including recently. Therefore, what I heard from you is very important.

I understand that everything is on track in your republic, there are no questions for local and regional authorities.

Marina Bakhilina: Yes, everything is on track.

Vladimir Putin: (addressing Yulia Belekhova) Ms Belekhova, keep in mind that there are good examples of the work of regional authorities.

Yulia Belekhova: Yes, Mr President, there are…

Vladimir Putin: And they should be replicated.

Yulia Belekhova: Yes, we should and will replicate them, because there are indeed examples of good regional work and care for families. Why we want to set up a regional committee on the ground, because maybe even the authorities need to be prompted somewhere on how this is done, how it is implemented. This is about caring for families today and helping them in the various situations they face.

Vladimir Putin: Sometimes they should be prompted, and positive examples are needed. They just need to be replicated, to show how this work should be done.

The English transcript ends here, and it appears it won't be finished since today is December 4. I've appended the machine translated Russian from this point onward so readers can at least see how much remains and the detail omitted from the English transcript.

O.Shigina:How I'm talking about it.

Vladimir Putin (addressing Olga Shigina): Yes, please, Olesya Nikolaevna.

O.Shigina:Hello again. I'm sitting next to you here.

I– documentary filmmaker, poet, mother of her son, who was just on conscription. But when it all started, he immediately said, "Mom, who, if not me?" and enlisted in the ranks of those who are ready to serve the Motherland.

When I found out about the decision of course, the poems and everything else flowed like a river. But most importantly, I realized that I would go to Donbass, to understand what is happening there, personally I'll go, I have to see everything myself and understand who these guys are – the same as mine, or maybe what they say. in the media...

Vladimir Putin: Not so.

Olga Shigina: Still, however, at that time it was all about that. very sharp: "no war" and so on.

And, you know, I ended up shooting. film. I went by myself, even without a bulletproof vest. The film is called "Brave."

Vladimir Putin: Did you make a film?

Olga Shigina: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: And on what equipment, how did you shoot?

Olga Shigina: I'm basically a documentary filmmaker. I have the technique. Not the most sophisticated, because the operators didn't come with me.

Vladimir Putin: Are you a professional filmmaker?

Olga Shigina: Yes. I have about 20 movies.

And when I got there, you know, as a mom, as a filmmaker. as a person who still passes through the soul[passes], of course I saw that there were holy guys there. I saw this look of standing before death, before God in the first place. I mean, they understand everything. that they are there for Russia. There is no Chechnya, Dagestan – they are for all of us, for all of us together.

I told women today. (I deviate a little from what I wanted to say), as three prayed in the same trench. I was told by a Dagestani man how the three of them, wounded in a trench, prayed in three languages – Chechen, Dagestani and Russian. Dagestani held Spas Handmade – the flag I gave him says, "I will wear it under my heart." And he read the Lord's Prayer to me in Russian language.

You see, we are raising Chechnya as well. together, we are all together, and we are now raising Donbass together. And the first film I had was about the militia, about these people. which are eight years are already there on the frontiers. (Addressing to N.Pshenichkina.) About your son. Of course, these are heroes, these are our saints.

I have this poem: "The time of time by turning milestones will hide the former power, // Again sin will be called sin, Russian – Poltava borscht. With each passing minute, regiments of warriors and saints are growing. The time of time and its sons are sight for the blind."

That's the vision [it's going to become] now. for the "blind", for the many blinded, who have been brainwashed by these fakes, these endless terrible information Attack. To repel them, you need to call up shelves of people ready to serve. The motherland is just as our sons serve.

We patriots are documentarians, poets, writers, actors, are the real ones. patriots, we are ready to join the ranks of those who will create the movie that the viewer is waiting for, and he is waiting for it.

Big request. For example, 20 of my films. Impossible to break through on television, you can't get into theaters, you know. Viewer says: where are your films, why don't we see them? We are we want to see them. This wall needs to be broken.

By the way, when I went to shoot, I didn't even have cameramen, the film it's called "Absolute Life." That is, the camera trembles in my hands, I'm not a soldier, but I'm now I understand everything, I understand how to shoot there.

Thanks to When I went there [to Donbass], I submitted an application to the Foundation for Cultural Initiatives [to Donbass] for the second time before that – this is a social elevator. Because The Ministry of Culture is very difficult to penetrate. And here I felt that the social elevator exists. That is, the Presidential the Foundation for Cultural Initiatives picked up my project, I had already been helped and I felt like I was together with the state, that I don't work alone, you know? Just like sons our now should feel there that they they are no longer alone, that they are [provided] with uniforms, that they are welcome here. Wounded they are crippled – we will give them a road map, how to continue to live. And this is my first film. the militias are coming out soon. I hope it will be shown.

Now I've got three more movies in mind. they have already suffered, I already understand how to make them. This is just a brave regular army, about our valiant regiments, in one of which my son serves. You just need to know – now there is a lot of criticism of the army, and it often has the right to be, but these valiant shelves exist that are our honor and conscience Army. They are, we know them. I know that you know these commanders, kombrigs, who are all wounded, with a mangled face, but they will lay down their lives for the guys, they will not leave them. And where the kombrig does not know how to do this, there the guys have problems, and if the kombrig is like our guys, everything is there. That's all right. And they will reach you, and they will get everything. We would like to have more of these combrigs, and about them I really want to make a film.

The second film I conceived about Cossacks. Cossacks are not only here on the Don, we have Cossacks from Vladivostok to the south. And it's also very important that we stopped divide: Don Cossack, Ural Cossack, Vladivostok Cossack. I want to make a film where the Cossacks with their songs, with their With their desire to serve "the faith, the tsar and the Fatherland" will be presented with that motherly love, you know, that is in me when I shoot.

The third film I would like to make is about our mobilized guys. You know, I have militias on the front line. they say, "Only fools are not afraid." And this one somewhat confused look at the wires - you can't imagine how after two For a month, he will turn into the gaze of a warrior, confident that he is serving the Motherland.

As one of the film's characters says, "We have some kind of backsliding here. Because of the spirit. For Russia, for Russia."

Vladimir Putin: Unity.

Olga Shigina: For complete unity, yes.

Really patriotic creative people easily to calculate, because they have not changed their patriotic attitude towards the country for the last 20 years. Very easy for us find – we are here, we are ready to serve the Fatherland. As written in my films: "Cinema in the service of the Fatherland". It's the last shot always after all the movies.

About mothers with many children, I shoot about our soldiers or about people who really They create in Russia – I have such films about heroes. I would very much I wanted a powerful festival... I'm sorry, of course I'm worried anyway, because there's so much to say inside.

Vladimir Putin: No, you are very informative, very informative. Interesting.

Olga Shigina: But the excitement, you know, it is present. So there's that.

For many years, festivals such as Artdocfest and Kinotavr have tormented our people. obscene content, films made with dislike – there is even such a thing The film of the same name, "Loveless", is called films made about dislike of Russia. We must now call those – and there the Guard is standing and waiting: call us, we are ready to shoot about the love for Russia, to shoot about our heroes, to write about them, to live there, in the Donbass, and write books. I'm personally willing to just sit in this trench and write about them.

And I hope that this institute – how do we get there – will appear, that the Ministry of Culture will begin to hear us. Because institutions like the Institute the development of the Internet, the society "Knowledge" is, as I understand it, you go directly to the people who hear you. It's such a rarity, you know. And it's such happiness, that we patriotic writers, poets and filmmakers began to hear. That we're not "oh, somehow you're all too there." They started to hear us.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, then, that I'm here, it also says that this social elevator... I think that the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives is still yours. initiative. And if Zharadat [Agueva] is very I am grateful to the Chechen leader, and first of all, I believe that everything that is being built and happening in Russia is being managed by our President. acts in coordination with people on the ground. If there [in the region] a competent leader – also from the front, you know, the phrase: it does not matter that the company does not think of anything, as long as the commander is not a fool. Here if there is no fool on the ground, everything is heard, all your orders are heard, and everything is done there. That's right just like in social organs. Here's this one. the ladder should appear.

So I have a big one. request (I formulate a lot, as a creative person says a lot).

First, I want to make these films with a mother's love, you know, through love. I need the assistance of the Ministry defense for this, because it is almost impossible to break into such units. I'm ready to shoot on the front line, I've already done this, I have experience now. I I'm not afraid as much as I can.

I would very much like other documentarians, poets, writers, to have access to cinemas, television, to leading TV channels, so that the leading TV channels didn't get carried away only with their entertainment content, but finally started us see.

I would really like to create film festival "In the service of the Fatherland". It doesn't have to be a movie just about SVO heroes.

I have the heroes of the film Airplanes they build airplanes in the village, in the abandoned village, and they take off from the daisy fields. Is that? not a hero? Or the other hero of the film is an inventor who creates the most sophisticated technologies in Russia, which are among the top five. Perhaps it's not a hero? Hero.

So please. I'm talking about all the creative stuff right now. intellectuals. I know that everyone really wants say. Mr President, we are counting on you very much.

Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: All right. Thank you.

In this regard, you know what thoughts it occurred to me right now when you were talking. about people of creative professions who are patriotic, and said that some of the events in the cultural sphere tormented our People.

Why? I can to say, it's very simple. Because we were in a state after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and it seemed to us – many – that now the sweet life would begin, and tomorrow we would live like in Paris or whatever. somewhere. Although now it turns out that as in Paris, many do not want to live.

Olga Shigina: Absolutely, yes.

Vladimir Putin: I thought it would be good there. In fact, this is not the case at all, there is a cultural the code is different. Probably, everything is possible, but the way we celebrate Mother's Day, the way we have gathered now and talk about the role of women, about the role of the mother, in many places they no longer know that it's a "mommy." Really? It's just "parent" number one" and "parent number two". And genders are measured by the dozens there, some "transformers" there – I don't even understand what they are talking about. It's not our culture at all, it's a completely different one. some kind of code.

What Olesya Nikolaevna is about she said that there are guys from Dagestan...

Olga Shigina: Yes, this is a mixture of cultures, and the war, of course, is for spirituality, for our spirituality.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, of course. Our unique civilization is the unification of people of different ethnic groups, different cultures and different religions into one whole. This is First.

Second. At the turn of the 2000s, 90s, it seemed to us that everything would be fine, but it turned out that this was not the case at all. Moreover, we began to live and play in some foreign glade and enthusiastically indulged in the fact that they were trying to control us. And ultimately those who tried to control us, by and large thanks to their efforts, we found ourselves in this situation, including in the zone of a special military operation. After all, they brought it to this point.

I understand now is not for serious We gathered on political conversations But still, if there had been no coup d'état in Ukraine in 2014, there would have been nothing, there would have been nothing. And so they had a lot of influence over this one. after 2014, they actually took control of all bodies of power and administration in fact.

And who are they? The Banderaites are essentially there. And what is Bandera?? Neo-Nazis. Bandera was Hitler's henchman, and shot the Russians, and, by the way, Poles, Jews, all at Hitler's behest. And today they have elevated such people to the rank of national heroes, that's what the guys are fighting against. our today in the zone of special military operations, that's who. And those who oppose them, many do not even understand what they are doing, do not understand that they are being used. just like a pawn in someone else's game. They playing someone else's game, but we have to to fight for their interests, for their people, for their country. That's what we're doing.

And what happened in previous years, in a significant way. The degree was related to the fact that we played, as if they always lived in someone else's meadow. And today's events are a path to some even internal cleansing and updating. And of course, such people, like you, people of creative professions who Of course, they have always been in demand, and in such difficult moments for the life of the country in particular.

But since for the previous everything has worked out in a certain way, clearing a clearing is enough for you difficult, believe me, even from my level. Because it's sitting there quite deeply. But we will do it for sure.

Olga Shigina: Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, we will. And of course, as for the assistance of the Defence Ministry, assistance will be provided to you. I'm even here. I don't doubt it at all. How to organize this work so that it is with a good result and as safe as possible – we will think about it and try to do this. Ok?

Olga Shigina: Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: As for rental and so on. You said that it is difficult for the Ministry of Culture to do this. To be done. Probably, there is also a bureaucracy there. But the Ministry of Culture will also get involved. Minister [Olga Lyubimova] is a woman of patriotic convictions and views, a very active young woman. a woman, experienced already. I'll talk to her too, we'll connect.

Olga Shigina: Yes, now is the time of documentary cinema. By the way, Russian documentarians are considered one of the best in the world, because that the level of penetration into the problem is very high among documentarians.

Vladimir Putin: Yes.

And what you said about the guys you saw there, practically on the front lines, it's certainly worth a lot. And to me it's it was good to hear now.

Olga Shigina: I can show you.

Natalya Pshenichkina: We watched this one film. She sent it to us.

Vladimir Putin: I would like to ask you to send you as well. You are welcome.

Shall we finish, shall we? Or something else?

Please, please.

Leonid Rubanik: Mr President,

I am a mother of seven children from St. Petersburg, Rubanic Lyubov Sergeevna.

Vladimir Putin: Here in St Petersburg there are families like that – it's nice to hear that. Not only in Chechnya, not only in Dagestan, but also in St. Petersburg.

Leonid Rubanik: We have six sons and an adopted daughter.

Vladimir Putin: Great.

Leonid Rubanik: The eldest two sons, Dmitry and Daniil, have already served in the army and are now ready go to mobilization. The middle son, Panteley, went to the military recruitment office in June and joined the army. In October he signed the contract, now is in preparation. Vladislav we also have now, in December, he goes to his brother's service. The two youngest children are 11 and 12 years old.

I would like to talk about patriotic education, because we have my grandparents went through the whole blockade. My grandfather was hearing impaired, but from the age of 14 he worked at the Baltic Plant, then reached Berlin, although was deaf, fought. And then a few years ago, he was already 92 years old, our dad passed away. Dedicated too all his life to the Navy, he served in Murmansk. This, it turns out, is my grandfather. children, so we have an upbringing like this, Initially, all children are patriots, everyone knows what our Motherland is.

When we were in school in our time, we had an elementary military. preparation, we were proud to be Octobrats, then Pioneers, and, of course, everyone rejoiced and aspired to be in the Komsomol.

I would like to tell you a little bit about our organization. This is Charitable Foundation "Tide" of the city St. Petersburg, which is part of the All-Russian movement "Mothers of Russia", St. Petersburg branch.

In connection with the latest events in the country, of course, we also could not stay away. We help as much as possible for internally displaced persons who come to St. Petersburg, we help pregnant women women, we also support the families [of the participants] SVO who found themselves in a difficult life Situation.

Just the other day, a mom turned. I have to give birth to a child the other day, and others are babies, she says: "There is no one to meet me now - my father is fighting - from the maternity hospital." And our volunteers, respectively, will go to see, meet. This is our organizational work. Older children, until they have to mobilize now, they also volunteer with us in every possible way – they work on targeted assistance, support families.

What I would like to say, of course, about the "Committee" mothers of the Fatherland" together with the All-Russian the Popular Front. I would like to work with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Defense it is step-by-step support of military personnel – post-traumatic accompaniment of those guys who return from the military Action.

So that everyone can develop support while the registration is underway disability, and psychological assistance to the family, that's what they were talking about, and help with it guys, because a lot of people, of course, are depressed. We also have a psychologist on the foundation's site, who also works with families forced to Immigrants. A lot of moms and even teenagers are in such a difficult condition, and families mobilized as well they talk about their nervous state, and this help is needed.

Vladimir Putin: This is the problem of rehabilitation, which we have already talked about, it is multifaceted, multifaceted. This is not only purely medical, but also psychological assistance should be social. I I have already said that it is very important, I think, to help people get additional skills, knowledge, some additional education, help with employment. This is a whole complex of works.

So am i I've already tagged it, of course, it needs to be done. And of course, Lyubov Sergeevna, with the help of your structures, NGOs, yours like Julia Alexandrovna said, we will do everything in every possible way. support.

Larry Rubanik: Yes. Only together can we win.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, I absolutely agree with you.

Leonid Rubanik: I would like to say one more thing literally. A few words that only mothers of Russia give birth to the best sons and daughters of our Motherland.

Vladimir Putin: Of course it is. That's just the way it is, it's true.

Natalya Uzunova: Good afternoon, Mr President.

Republic of Khakassia, my name is Hope. And as Nina Petrovna has already said, as we all believe that 30 September was indeed the most important event for throughout our country, and I was lucky enough to be on Red Square, to host to participate and be in this united impulse with our entire country. There are more children in our country, a large number of families were added. And what about is it? This means responsibility, a huge responsibility for these people.

Donbass I know him firsthand, I know him from 2017. As part of his favorite organization "Combat Brotherhood", a member of which I am, under the leadership of Alexander Vekshin, the head of Khakass We evacuated seriously ill and wounded children from the territory of Donbass. And then with my own eyes I saw for the first time this pain of Shakhtar, Donetsk, Throats, when you pull kids out of basements, when you're boys, girls...

Here Is Olesya making a film about brave, and I had jobs then short films, small ones, which we now show in schools, because peers understand better than peers – this we have developed a system. And when these we shot short films, shot the same name: what is the name of the child, so it is called film.

My first film was Vovka. The boy is ten years old, he takes, turns me on. to the basement and says, you know, I know how to lie, I know how to sit, I know how to stand on orders, as I need, as a soldier, but I I'm afraid I won't get over this moment. Artem, whose sister died in front of his eyes. How can you forgive it, how can it be forgiven? forget? And someone pressed that button when it exploded. Vadim. I know everyone by name.

And I am a mother of many children, here you will not surprise anyone with this, we are all great, I also bring up fosters. children by herself, alone. So, of course, strangers there are no children, definitely. And from that moment on, I decided to help, I decided to go forward.

Recently I was in St. Petersburg, but rest is no longer morally possible, because you're rebuilt, you're rebuilt for a completely different task. And we visited the hospitals of our soldiers – the 442nd, the VMA. And of course, we visited with our brotherly The Republic of Tyva, because Khakassia and Tyva are native republics, we are very close, closely related.

Vladimir Putin: Side by side.

Natalya Uzunova: And with women from the community of the Republic of Tuva in St Petersburg we, of course, visited our guys. You know, even here our unity. Why? How to please the fighters, than surprise them? We decided to cook a national dish. And of course, with those buckets of pies when you you go into these wards, you talk to the fighters, somewhere you hear, you know, this: "How delicious, like at home." Well, what do you need more? When you realize that you you are the conductor of the love of these mothers who today can not be with our guys.

When the mobilization began, of course, all the women of our country have experienced a huge sense of anxiety, this is unequivocal, this is one hundred percent. But at the same time, literally after some couple of hours, I got up and wrote down the appeal, and it is about the unification of forces in our republic, consolidation, in the feminine energy of the feminine force, about the fact that we can't give up, and the last thing is to lose heart, you can't. do it.

And we began to gather the sons of Khakassia. I'm sure women did the same. in other regions. We collected from backpacks to their destination, to their place of deployment with prayers, with provisions, with food. All women merged, really. It's such a force, it's such power, it's such a charge. And you realize that you're becoming so much. Strong.

When the guys left, you left everyone. You see off, and we took 1400 people. Farther I followed them to the exercises, to the training grounds, accompanying them in their aspirations, because everything was happening. quickly, and some questions and problems remained. Of course, you decide these moments on the ground.

We'll move on, Vladimir. Vladimirovich, make no mistake, we already know, that's for sure.

Of course there are difficulties, as in any problem, case, new business, Complex. Of course, I will tell you that in Khakassia everyone still works 24 to 7: and regional the authorities, and the municipal authorities, and the residents of the Republic of Khakassia are those who today we are really united. No a caring person.

What are the difficulties, now, I guess I'll talk about them a little bit and very briefly.

For example, it seems to me that based on from experience, because you work all the time, fighters are always in touch. If earlier I asked how the day went, only from my children, sons, now I I understand that my evening is increasing. They call, they talk, they report, roughly speaking, how it goes, that you need something to help, what needs to be delivered to the front line, because the list is changing: the uniform has ended, there are funds special communications, other points.

What is happening on the ground with regional support and assistance, why Julia made an accent. Let me explain to you: you need to hear every family, of course. Today, the common task and our task are the people who work. directly with families – we understand and pay attention to each family. Here we must not forget this, we must not miss it. these moments.

At this point, how am I? it seems to be a hearing before the adoption of the budget, they are open, and it is impossible to adopt a regional budget without aspirations, without wishes and without problems. mobilized families. They can, they should take part, and then there will be no problems.

And what problems do you get? The resulting problems are as follows: we have Amendments. What is an amendment? The amendment is ten days. So, some family will not get ten days. certain payments.

For now, I'll tell you, that we have everything settled. Just Julia made the accent, already in the near future Tuesday 29 of these families will receive regional payment, that is, everything is fine. Because it was a bureaucratic delay. again, registration - such moments. Again I emphasize that the topic is new, the topic is complex.

Yet one point I would like to make Of course, these are benefits. The Government of the Republic of Khakassia has developed a large, serious package additional measures other than financial Payments. But when any benefit is developed, its mechanism must be worked out. Again, for example, coal. Got it that we have no problems with coal in the republic, I I mean with its quantity, but the mechanism the work was not fully completed. It turns out as follows: coal begins to be issued according to this regional system only literally now, and here in Siberia already It's cold.

But, again, I will tell you that not a single family was left without it, because we have partners, sponsors, the work of the heads of municipal formations that today on the ground very quickly solve problems. Naturally, Khakassia is a small family, and, of course, issues are resolved fairly quickly.

And one more point that I would also like to draw your attention to. It is clear that everyone is trying, all municipalities. We have 12 municipalities, affected by mobilization, and each chapter the municipality, of course, tries for its municipality, and the difference in benefits is obtained. And if there's a difference, so somewhere less. Of course, next week we will discuss these points, because the chapters are always in contact. and on direct communication. Of course, we believe that there should be no difference. These are very important Moments.

And you know, Mr President, very strong people gathered here today women. Women who can really show by their example how to live, how to educate, because we are guided, of course, by the examples, probably, of their grandparents who forged the Victory in the rear, unambiguously. I mean, we have a good school. good example.

But no matter how strong we are, we need a strong male shoulder – your shoulder, Your support, support for our committee. Great Thank you for receiving us today, from us, from our mothers. We go forward, we go forward with our families, because families are all the families of our mobilized guys, volunteers, which we have, by the way, lots of. Indeed, a lot, and we are proud of them.

And, of course, I also can't help but say hello to you from our fighters, because they talk about it, they know, that I'm here today. From all fighters, from all guys and volunteers of the Republic of Khakassia a huge hello to you. Please accept.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much.

Question it would seem to be so everyday, but it is also significant - these are benefits and their uniform application, mechanisms and speed of decision-making. You don't need to do this even some complex decisions within the framework of the budget process, you just need to advance to foresee everything, and it will be done automatically, there is no problem here. But nevertheless, I still marked it, I will refer to it. attention.

Natalya Uzunova: Thank you very much.

Vladimir Putin: As for the associations that are being created. at the call of the heart, as they say, here we are. said several such associations here I I can already see that representatives of these associations are present. And yours, of course, too.

Natalya Uzunova: I'm talking about our committee, it's already ours.

Vladimir Putin: Oh, is this a general one?

Natalya Uzunova: Of course, this is our common cause. We are burning with our common cause.

Vladimir Putin: Okay, I'm sorry.

Natalya Uzunova: The committee that Yulia spoke about, I ask you to support it. We are already active, we we are already working on the ground, we have experience.

Vladimir Putin: Everything is clear.

Are we going to finish?

I would like to say in conclusion. Nadezhda Alexandrovna said that support is needed, on the one hand. On the other hand Sides, support, I have already said, of course, Will.

But you know what I want you. to say that the most important support is your position and how – I will not be afraid of any loud ones here. words – you have lived until now, and how you are they raised their guys. This is the main basis and foundation of Russia's existence.

I'm not just talking about you, about those present, but about our mothers in general, about our Mothers. This is the main foundation on which to stand country. That's it – that's our story. our culture, our traditions, in this confidence in the future of the country, confidence in our victories in the broadest sense of the word, not only within the framework of this military operation.

As Marina Fyodorovna said, and as I understand it, you spoke about the future of the country, that it should be different. This, if you have noticed, despite all the issues related to the special military We are not changing our plans for the development of the state, for the development of the state. the country, on the development of the economy, its social spheres, according to national projects. We have huge, big plans, but they can be implemented if we are also together to solve all the problems, all the issues that the country faces – and within the framework of this special operations, and within the framework, as they said before, our working days.

The most important guarantee of our success is unity. A unity about which here Olesya Nikolaevna spoke, about whom Zharadat Khozhaevna spoke, spoke Suna Neifelovna, all from all regions, from our Cossack regions, from new regions, of those who have always believed that they are the very heart and foundation of the Russian state. All this together: and the so-called periphery, and center, and south, north, east, The West is all our huge country, Russia.

But this is not only a territory and not so much a territory – it is primarily people, their traditions, their culture, their history, which is passed down from generation to generation and is absorbed by all of us with mother's milk.

All thanks to you.

Thank you very much.