Official website of the President of Russia

Документ   /

During the meeting, former USSR Minister of General Machine Building (1983–1988) Oleg Baklanov on behalf of the industry’s veteran workers presented to the President his book Space Is My Life.

* * *

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon.

I would like to congratulate all of you on the 60th anniversary of the Military-Industrial Commission, above all the veteran members, who devoted years of their lives, their talent and inspiration to this work of crucial importance for the country. I hope very much that the current personnel will carry on the work the veterans did. I see very young people here who have as much talent and are as devoted to their job and the country as the veterans. This is what we need now and always will. You can see that your work has not lost its importance, which is quite high and even singular for a country such as Russia.

We do not need this to threaten anyone with the products of our defence industry, but to live peacefully, confidently and decently, without having to look around in fear of what might happen to us any second. It is a relief that this is not the situation, and I hope that it never will be, thanks to you and your colleagues at your companies.

Of course, it is very important to set your minds to working as we have planned, so that civilian and dual-purpose products constitute at least 50 percent of your output. We need to make the best of the opportunities offered by the modernisation of the defence sector, in which we have invested quite a lot of money, more precisely, 3 trillion rubles. This money must be used not only to maintain our defence capabilities but also to win the domestic and foreign markets of high-tech civilian products.

Once again, I congratulate you on this event and wish you every success.

Remark: Thank you. The veterans have not stopped working. We will do a lot of good things yet under your guidance.

Vladimir Putin: I have no doubt. Thank you very much.

<…>