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Taking part in the meeting were managers of the country’s enterprises and companies which safeguard technological sovereignty, successfully replace the brands that left Russia, create new jobs in the regions and actively explore foreign markets.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues.

Today is Russian Entrepreneurship Day, and I extend my congratulations on the event both to you and on your behalf, as they say, to the entire business community of Russia which consists of tens, hundreds, thousands and maybe even millions of people who perform a momentous task – provide goods and services and just create the underpinning of our economic life.

I wanted to meet exactly these people because the most famous companies are a talking point, we meet with their leaders regularly, they are real juggernauts of the Russian economy in a good sense.

But I want you to know that we know you and we have a great respect for what you are doing. My colleagues and I wanted to meet these particular businesspeople so as to listen to you and see what else may and must be done to support you and your colleagues.

Everyone says entrepreneurship is a special path, one must be talented and be versed in law, finance, the economy in a broad sense. However, I believe that the most successful entrepreneurs have a special talent of being able to communicate with people. I think this is key, a foundation of business success. And also to communicate with business partners, and with everyone in general. As I observe, people with this talent attain the greatest success.

Sure enough, this work requires special knowledge, no doubt about that. But the key is to pool efforts around interesting ideas. It refers also to those areas, industries and services that are being created from scratch. Pushing this barrow wheel is probably the hardest thing, especially if you have no external support. That’s what I think is hardest.

It is the intense daily work that paves the way to success for the entrepreneur’s business and his company. And ultimately, without any exaggeration, to the success of the entire country.

We remember history well and know what important role the trading, merchant, and entrepreneurial class played in the exploration of the Russian North, Siberia, the Far East, the Urals, Novorossiya, and the Black Sea region, as well as in the creation of the Russian fleet and railways, in supporting our culture, science, education, in carrying out the first domestic industrialisation at the turn of the 20^th century, which laid the foundations for the development of the country's industry and infrastructure for decades to come. Many enterprises built back then later served the country during the Great Patriotic War and in the postwar years.

Of course, I cannot help but highlight the contribution that businesses, including the younger generation of entrepreneurs, made to the economic development of Russia in the 21^st century. The revival of agriculture, the construction sector, and entire branches of industry and modern services play a vital role in strengthening our sovereignty, including industrial, technological and financial sovereignty. Without this sovereignty, no form of sovereignty is truly possible, because everything else rests upon it – this is the foundation.

The fact that Russia now ranks as the fourth-largest economy in the world by purchasing power parity is, without question, your achievement: an outcome of the dedicated work of enterprise teams and companies across every region of the Russian Federation.

I have mentioned this before, but let me repeat: over the past two years, under far from ideal conditions – conditions that were, in fact, quite difficult – the Russian economy has demonstrated accelerated growth. The year before last, GDP increased by 4.1 percent; last year, by 4.3 percent. These are strong figures. Moreover, this growth was not limited to isolated industries or regions but was broad-based and comprehensive, spanning key sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture, digital technologies, services, and finance. Clearly, such impressive results cannot be attributed to the efforts of just a few large organisations which I mentioned earlier. They are only possible when hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people unite behind a shared national endeavour.

Over the past few years, Russia and our business community have faced a number of acute challenges, and the entrepreneurial community has faced a number of challenges. They were related to changes in logistics and cooperation chains, to the disruption of previously familiar payment mechanisms and international settlements. In addition, a number of foreign companies left the Russian market, largely forced by the so-called political Western elites. And some of them, unfortunately, but this is an obvious thing, “framed” their Russian partners.

And it is very important that in these difficult conditions our entrepreneurs did not lose heart, did not give up, but, on the contrary, showed their inherent business acumen, ingenuity and substantial economic efficency in the broadest and most direct sense of the word, demonstrated real leadership qualities – all that is in demand at any historical stage and at any time, and today it is especially important and helps the country to move forward.

Our meeting is attended by just such entrepreneurs from various industries and sectors of the national economy. These include industry, including high-tech industry, information technology, agribusiness, catering, tourism and other areas.

All of you, colleagues, are united not only by the high rate of development of your businesses, but also by the desire to continue to grow dynamically, to bring benefit to people, to serve society, to make our country, Russia, even stronger.

Your companies hold increasingly strong positions within the country, and also confidently compete abroad. Thanks to the flexibility of their approaches and, of course, the quality of their products, they are increasing their supplies to promising international markets. And I want to assure you that the state will definitely continue to support you and your efforts, and will lend a shoulder for implementing your initiatives.

Well, as we agreed, we would first of all like to listen to you, in the sense that I mentioned, what are your assessments of the current situation and what do you think the Government should do to support you.

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Vladimir Putin: Colleagues, I would like to finish where I started. Congratulations to the entire Russian entrepreneurial community and all your teams on Russian Entrepreneurship Day. I wish you all success.

There is something I would like to point out. As a matter of fact, I will not say anything new as opposed to what has been said here today. Our colleague has just said that until recently, there were 70 percent of foreign veterinary medications in the Russian market and the ratio is changing dramatically. The same is true for almost every industry you represent: in information security, software, public catering, transport engineering, and so on and so forth.

In Russia we say, there would be no fortune but misfortune helped. Well, what can we do? We did not create any problems for anybody. But if we do face challenges, especially those created by other countries, Russia has always — and I want to stress it — demonstrated an incredible ability to overcome any difficulties and any problems. This is exactly the case when overcoming difficulties is making us stronger. This is exactly the case. But, of course, it is happening thanks to the talent of our people, our nation, the hard work and the management talent of our business community.

A great deal has been done. I want to thank you for that. As it has been said, we must not rest just yet.

Good luck and happy Russian Entrepreneurship Day.

I wish you all the best.