Official website of the President of Russia

News   /

A dinner in honour of the festival’s participants and guests was held in St George’s Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace by Russia’s First Lady Lyudmila Putin. In the midst of the event, President Putin made a surprise appearance to give his congratulations. A festival, he said, is a good occasion to look at the state of the library services in the country. He noted that school libraries occupied a special place in education.

The President said that Russia gained the right to call itself one of the most literate countries in the world by establishing a broad network of libraries. He stressed that although library assistants had lately complained about a lack of funding, they managed at least to maintain, if not expand, library holdings.

Laura Bush, Bella Kocharian and Zorka Parvanova, the first ladies from the United States, Armenia and Bulgaria, were present, as well as about 250 guests.