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The event took place at the State Kremlin Palace. The congress participants re-elected Sergei Shoigu as RGS President.

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Address by the President of Russia

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Friends,

I am delighted to welcome the participants and guests of the 17^th Congress of the Russian Geographical Society.

This year marks a number of important dates for this organisation, primarily, the 80^th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War.

We are aware of the great contribution to Victory and to defeating Nazism made by geographers, topographers, and meteorologists. Many large-scale WWII operations, indeed, probably all of them, used the help, support, and direct involvement of these specialists.

We are also aware of the number of initiatives implemented by the RGS search teams today. They are working in hard-to-access areas and the seas ranging from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. The results of their work are impressive and help preserve historical memory and the truth.

The 180^th anniversary of the Russian Geographical Society is the second landmark date.

I would like to once again congratulate you and your colleagues on the occasion of this anniversary and to point out that the achievements of the active RGS members are, in many regards, comparable to the achievements of your predecessors.

You were the first in modern-day Russia to massively enlist volunteers in carrying out major projects. You were the first to launch programmes for preserving rare animals, and these programmes laid the groundwork for systematic steps in this field at the state level.

Or take, for example, the major cleanup effort in the Arctic. It is a massive nationwide project involving thousands of volunteers. This, too, was an RGS initiative from inception to realisation.

The Russian Geographical Society has always been active in high latitudes and has played a leading role in exploring and developing the Arctic. Today, it continues to carry out environmental missions, to explore the region’s history, and to open new tourist routes.

I would like the Government and the heads of our Arctic, northern territories and regions be mindful of the fact that the RGS has vast experience working in challenging polar conditions, and this experience must by all means be leveraged in implementing development programmes addressing every area of focus from the economy and infrastructure to environment, tourism, and the social sphere.

Without a doubt, the RGS should be supported in bringing to fruition promising projects such as the Artur Chilingarov Ice Base, or the Krasnoyarsk Arctic Exploration Park and Museum on Molokov Island which is truly an iconic place for researchers, historians, and pilots engaged in polar exploration and a starting point for our achievements in developing the Arctic.

It is our duty to honour sites associated with the most significant events in Russian history, our national triumphs, and our national heroes. By learning about such examples, young people cultivate pride in their homeland and a desire to be useful for the Fatherland.

I call upon the Russian Geographical Society, along with its trustees, to participate actively in the implementation of Arctic initiatives. You are rightfully present in this auditorium today as esteemed guests of the congress. We shall meet again today during the dedicated events, but from this rostrum, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your direct and immediate involvement in the life and work of the Russian Geographical Society. Thank you very much.

The support of the trustees forms the bedrock of the Society’s success, serving as a worthy continuation of the traditions established by the illustrious members and competitors of the Imperial Geographical Society, whose efforts led to hundreds of discoveries that shaped Russia’s achievements in science, economy, defence, and culture.

Let me recall that the principal aim of the Geographical Society’s founders in 1845 was “to gather and direct the best young people of Russia to a comprehensive study of their native land.” This mission remains as relevant today as ever. Patriotism, a sense of belonging to the fate of the Motherland, and a responsibility for its future all arise from knowledge of its history and geography, as well as from an appreciation of the Fatherland’s cultural and natural heritage.

I believe that the principal direction for the Society’s future development lies in education and the dissemination of knowledge, the consolidation of young people around creative ideas and enduring values.

I fully support the decision to involve the Geographical Society in the development of a unified geography textbook.

In addition to the dissemination of knowledge, the Society has amassed extensive experience in working with children, including highly successful initiatives such as educational programmes for school students beginning their study of geography, as well as the dedicated World of Discoveries sessions, which the Society has been holding at leading children’s health camps for the past ten years.

Such educational thematic recreational programmes should be available in every region of the Russian Federation. I suggest that the RGS branches – supported, of course, by local authorities – take responsibility for organising this initiative.

I would also like to address the RGS Media Council, which brings together the heads of key national media outlets. I urge you to continue championing the educational mission of the Russian Geographical Society across all media platforms: from social media to television and websites, such as the Russia from Sea to Sea geoinformation resource, which is virtually unrivalled globally in the diversity and comprehensiveness of its maritime heritage data; and the Society’s geo-portal, which has made over 20,000 unique digitised maps available to users.

Companies involved in the development and training of artificial intelligence should also draw upon the Society’s collections. Only by grounding ourselves in our culture, history, linguistic richness, traditions, and enduring values can we create truly sovereign models of artificial intelligence, rather than merely replicating others’ solutions, a practice that leads to both technological and ideological dependence, and, ultimately, to the erosion of sovereignty.

Friends,

In two years we will mark the 200^th birth anniversary of the great scientist, one of the Russian Geographical Society leaders Pyotr Semenov-Tyan-Shansky. The entire country is going to celebrate this event. Meanwhile, 2027 is also a year of several other momentous geographical anniversaries, including the 200^th birth anniversary of the first RGS chair Grand Prince Konstantin, and the 330^th anniversary of the discovery of Kamchatka by Russian explorers.

In view of the contribution by our geographers of various centuries to the strengthening of the state, and utter significance of the science of geography, I ask the Government to consider a possibility to declare 2027 the Year of Geography. It also matters to us politically. The main events of the Year could be not only the approval and presentation of renewed maps of the Russian Federation but also, undeniably, from a practical point, the opening of a geography museum.

The Congress delegates know that a geography museum was conceived from the very outset of the RGS activities. However, unique artefacts from the expeditions of Nikolai Przhevalsky, Nikolai Miklukho-Maklay, Pyotr Kozlov and other great scientists had to be handed out to different collections, whereas the museum of geography set up in Petrograd in 1919 for some totally incomprehensible political reasons was closed 20 years later. The museum was opened in 1919 under the Bolshevik government but in 1940 it was closed for political reasons. Well, all this was in the past, and we have to move forward.

There are a handful of similar museums in the world, but we must by all means establish such a museum in Russia, which will be spacious, beautiful and diversified. It must certainly meet all today’s requirements.

Friends,

The delegates of the Congress are to elect the president of the Russian Geographical Society today. The Learned Council has nominated Sergei Shoigu to the position. He was one of the initiators of the revival of the Russian Geographical Society. Campaigning on the election day is not allowed, as you know, but I hope that all voters will consider his merits in the revival and development of the Russian Geographical Society.

I am grateful for your attention, thank you.