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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Friends,

I am glad to welcome the participants in the Movement of the First festival, and above all to congratulate schoolchildren, parents, teachers and mentors on International Children’s Day.

The festival, just like the Movement of the First, is growing and developing, spreading all over the country. Today the main festival venues are open in 12 large cities, from our western borders to Sakhalin.

I am confident that the festival will be a bright and memorable event that will help you make new friends and gain useful, essential knowledge, engage in interesting creative projects of the Movement of the First, including during the upcoming summer holidays.

There are a lot of opportunities for this. You can become science volunteers or learn how to create robots, take part in the Zarnitsa game team in its modern, updated version, or join young naturalists – in a word, find an activity to your liking, which will reveal your abilities.

It is great that the movement – initiated by schoolchildren, by the way – supports in every possible way creative undertakings, the ability to make friends, work in a team, offer new directions and projects.

We can see – judging by your decision also – how the initiatives that once united your parents and older generations are getting a new start.

At the same time, you do not copy anything, but rather revive good, kind traditions at today’s level, including those that the Young Pioneer organisation had. And what is very important, you complement and enrich them with your own initiatives, which are needed right now.

More than one and a half million letters have been sent by movement participants to fighters in the special military operation zone. I know that our heroes are waiting for these letters, keeping them as their most valuable possession.

I also want to thank those who joined the Book Bridge campaign. Movement activists across the country are collecting books for children from the new regions, adding postcards with warm words to the parcels. I think that such correspondence will definitely develop into strong friendship.

I want to separately thank your mentors who help you to discover your strong points and reveal your best human qualities, find the right path in life.

Right now you are already trying to be useful, help others, feel involved in your country’s future, carry on the traditions of your parents and grandparents, and this is a very good thing. At the same time, you are pioneers who will have to discover the future of our country, the future of Russia.

Go for it, and we will always support you.

I wish you every success and bright victories.