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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon.

My greetings to everyone, this time from the Far East.

Today is a great day, my greetings to you all on Knowledge Day. As usual, on September 1, many festive and joyful events take place around Russia related to the beginning of the new school year.

One such event is the completion of 37 new social facilities in Dagestan; 36 of them were built by military builders.

First of all, I would like to thank the leaders of the Ministry of Defence and everyone else who was involved, for their dedicated work, for building schools, kindergartens and nurseries that the region needs so badly.

I know you had to deal with some challenges, considering the seismic environment in the region, and to build in hard-to-reach and mountainous areas. But the engineers, designers, and builders have met the deadlines while ensuring the work is of high quality; they have used new technological solutions and, of course, complied with all the necessary environmental requirements.

I would like to emphasise that new schools, kindergartens, and nurseries have up-to-date equipment and technology, comfortable and convenient premises, playgrounds and sports facilities for study and recreation.

I know that the Defence Ministry is now building 37 more projects in my beloved Dagestan; 27 will open by the end of this year.

The new schools and preschool facilities will lend a strong impetus to social development in Dagestan, and will create a more comfortable environment for child guidance and education.

I would like to stress that the new up-to-date social infrastructure is being developed in Dagestan and other regions of our huge and vast country under a national project. By the end of 2023, at least 256,000 nursery places should be added around Russia. Over the past four years, the federal government has allocated more than 150 billion rubles for this purpose.

Let me repeat: we will continue developing the social and education infrastructure in all the regions and gradually make it possible for parents to send their children to a nursery or kindergarten, without queues, no matter where they live, and to have enough places at schools so that children do not have to do afternoon or even evening sessions.

I am confident that the military construction complex of the Defence Ministry will continue to contribute to such necessary work.

Let me remind you that last year, during the most difficult period of the coronavirus pandemic, military builders promptly helped Russia and quickly built 30 high-quality multipurpose medical centres. Since they opened, the 20 medical centres of the Defence Ministry alone have treated over 26,000 patients, and not just service personnel – they amounted to a little over half of those who received treatment and rehabilitation at these centres. Let me repeat: a little over half were military personnel, and the rest were civilians who needed help. This directly confirms the words that the people and the army are one. It really is so.

The military builders make a significant contribution to creating and renovating military education institutions. Over the last seven years, new facilities opened, by tradition, by the beginning of the new academic year. For example, last year on September 1, three schools opened at once: the North Caucasus and Tver Suvorov military schools, as well as a branch of the Nakhimov Naval School in Kaliningrad. And this year, new educational buildings were built at the Omsk cadet corps, one of the oldest in Russia.

Of course, this work must and will continue.

In conclusion, I would like to once again congratulate you on today’s occasion, Knowledge Day, and wish you success and all the best.

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