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The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Anton Vaino, Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, Director of the Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov, and Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues.

To begin our meeting, I would like to inform you that I have signed the Executive Order to decorate the crew of the aircraft that recently made an emergency landing at Zhukovsky Airport. The captain and his co-pilot have been awarded the title of Hero of Russia. The rest of the crew received the Order of Valour. I hope that we will have as few incidents of this kind as possible, or better none at all. However, we can take satisfaction in knowing that the crew was well trained. This is first.

Second, today we have assembled in Anapa at the invitation of Mr Patrushev. He has shown us an excellent volleyball complex. Nikolai Patrushev has been involved in volleyball for a long time and helps athletes, experts, coaches and doctors who work with our national teams and train the next generation. Now the teams are going to the youth world championships. The complex in Sochi is very good; I have seen it, too.

Of course, we should pay attention to such projects. I am asking you to send this signal to all the agencies and to the Government, so that not just the Ministry of Sport but also private initiatives, where possible, are involved in supporting the development of physical fitness and sport.

We know how important it is for the health of the nation and for addressing key objectives, including those related to the longevity and health of the citizens of Russia as well as achievements in professional sports that everyone who loves sports aspire to reach as well as all the fans, so that we could organise events like when we hosted the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games, and remain at the forefront in other sports as well, and bring joy to our fans.

Turning to today’s meeting, preparatory work has been done on a number of issues that we need to address. Let us discuss them.