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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good evening.

I will not recapitulate the figures, you really know them better than I do. The only thing I would like to say is that you all did well.

I have just had a chat with the WorldSkills International leaders. They are delighted with both the organisation and the Russian team’s performance.

I will not repeat everything lest I appear immodest, but I know that your performance was tremendous; you achieved remarkable progress by comparison with the previous competitions at this level, and did so practically in all competencies.

We are proud of you. Good work! I think this will bring about a big qualitative change in your life and your professional careers. And this is a superb signal and an excellent example for all the other people who are choosing as good a vocation as yours.

I congratulate you from the bottom of my heart and wish you all every success. I hope – your age allows this, you are all quite young people – that you will participate again in competitions like this. But the most important thing is that you will later reveal at your places of work what the participation in WorldSkills and your awards are all about. You will show that these medals were not won by chance; you have earned them due to your talent, your work, industry and ambition – most importantly your ambition – to prove that in any business there are competencies that are, without any doubt, the top achievements in a profession.

You are the living proof of what I have just said. Let me congratulate you once again. I wish you all the best and every success.

I would like to once again thank the organisers. Kazan did all that was required in order to create conditions for you and your fellow competitors. This is also an achievement, our scope of competence. We are displaying it in the best possible manner in all spheres, and in this one too. Kazan has shown a good example. I think St Petersburg will have to do an even much better job, given that it still has three years to go. Perhaps some of you will take part in it, we will see how this will look shortly.

Of course, we should not forget about your instructors and mentors, who paved the way to enable your advance towards success (I do not mean the team that organised the competitions). They certainly did well and I can see that they are present here. Let me bow down to all of you and your colleagues, who are working – or perhaps worked and continue to work – outside of the WorldSkills framework, but are doing their job at the highest level. This is extremely important.

Thank you.

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