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The winners included workers, cultural figures, scientists, pilots, journalists and doctors.

Police Major Abubakar Kostoyev from Ingushetia has been awarded the title Hero of Russia for his courage and professionalism during a police operation to capture a suicide bomber. State decorations were also conferred on Svetlana Kapanina, the only female pilot at the Sukhoi Aviation Holding; mathematician Valery Kozlov, Vice President of the Russian Academy of Sciences; and Director of the State Hermitage Museum Mikhail Piotrovsky. State decorations were also presented to famous musicians and actors Alexandra Pakhmutova, Leonid Bronevoi, Alla Pugacheva and Vladimir Spivakov, as well as tractor driver Nikolai Dolgobrod, oil industry worker Viktor Kiryukov, excavator operator Fidail Adiatulin, metals industry worker Yuri Nechto, driver Alexander Serdyuchenko and many others.

The President also presented certificates conferring honorary titles.

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Address at the state decorations awarding ceremony

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, friends.

I am very happy to welcome you here in the Kremlin and to congratulate you on your state decorations.

It has become a tradition to hold this ceremony ahead of the New Year holiday season. Despite the solemnity of the situation, I am sure you can feel the approaching of this good-hearted holiday, warm despite the winter. This is a time to take stock of our achievements, and clearly your achievements, victories and success will become part and parcel of the outgoing year’s results.

We are seeing off a year that was undoubtedly special for Russia, filled with life-changing events. It is in moments like these that we clearly see how much Russia means to every one of us: responsibility for its future, for everything we hold dear and sacred and everything we need to protect and defend. I am certain that everyone in this hall feels the same, and these feelings are shared by a vast, overwhelming majority of our people.

Our faith in our strength rests on unique examples of heroism. Employees of law enforcement agencies are guarding the law and combatting crime. They risk their lives as they do their duty to maintain the peace and safety of our citizens.

Among those who received the state decorations is police Major Abubakar Kostoyev from Ingushetia. He has been awarded the title Hero of Russia for his courage and professionalism during a police operation to capture a suicide bomber.

Svetlana Kapanina, the only female pilot at the Sukhoi Aviation Holding, demonstrates exceptional skills and courage, leaving behind many of her male colleagues as she masters unique elements of aerobatics. She has already gone down in history as the most distinguished instructor pilot.

Fulfilling, retaining and multiplying the great intellectual and creative potential of our people is a task of national significance. High national awards have been presented today to prominent figures in Russian science and education, medicine, industry and agriculture. Your work is filled with care for the welfare of the nation and its future.

I would like to note here the outstanding achievements in mathematics and mechanics of professor and academic supervisor, Vice President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Valery Kozlov, and the many years of fruitful work to train researchers by scholar and Great Patriotic War veteran Maxim Zarogulko.

Medical professionals help people and promote Russian healthcare, their primary focus being on patients. However, to do their job with greater efficiency they introduce advanced medical technologies into their practical work. This is something such talented scientists and doctors as Leila Adamyan, Alexei Barchuk, Yevgeny Gusev and many others present here have dedicated their lives to.

Yardmaster Alexander Gorbatiuk has been working for decades in the infrastructure area of railway transportation. The uninterrupted work and safety on an important section of the West Siberian Railway largely depend on his knowledge and honest work.

Such people, the working people, form the golden pool of Russia’s success and achievements. Masters of culture make their own outstanding contribution to this pool. Here we see a galaxy of talented actors and musicians whom we all know and love.

I would like to note that actor Leonid Bronevoi has become a Full Cavalier of the Order For Services to the Fatherland.

With us here today is the talented, legendary, very modest and absolutely outstanding Alexandra Pakhmutova. Your songs accompany us through life. They unite, amaze, bring joy and warmth and inspire us. They reflect not only the common history and fate of the nation, but also the personal feelings and emotions of its people. Most of your songs have become timeless classics. I am sure people will always sing them.

Russian culture has always set high moral and social standards and promoted the ideals of peace and goodwill. Today and in the future, it will help in our honourable and dignified job of strengthening the nation.

Friends, I would like to congratulate you once again on your state decorations, and wish you a happy upcoming New Year. May it bring you lots of health, happiness and creative achievements.

Let us begin the ceremony.

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