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The Leaders of Russia national management competition is a project of the Russia – Land of Opportunity platform launched in 2017 on the Presidential instruction to identify promising new-generation leaders and to support their career advancement. The ceremony for presenting awards to the winners of the 5^th season – 102 managers from 31 Russian regions and two foreign countries, Belgium and Serbia, – took place in Moscow on February 25.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon and welcome everyone.

This meeting with graduates of the Leaders of Russia format and platform is a regular event that is held with a simple goal in mind which is, first, to congratulate you on your achievements and, second, to hear what you have to say about the event and what you have learned during your contacts with each other and during conversations and classes that were held in various formats. This is the fifth class of graduates, and over a million people have been trained under this system over the years. Probably, this is the largest human resources forum internationally, not just in Russia, which is impressive.

It is crucial that the people with whom you met and talked and who formulated the tasks and assessed the results, have achieved much themselves and were in a position to assess your accomplishments objectively.

The third point that I would like to highlight is that this year you were able to work in the regions. I am aware there are people in this audience who work in the regions as part of their regular job, but nevertheless, it was important for everyone else to try their hand at addressing problems at the regional level. This is a critical element of training and competitive selection, as well as determining one's own abilities.

I would like to thank our colleagues in the regions, the regional leaders, for providing this opportunity.

I am also pleased to note that the number of applications, which was very large, includes more and more people who live permanently outside of Russia, but show interest in our country and want to work in Russia. They are eligible for expedited and simplified procedure for gaining Russian citizenship, and 29 people have already made that decision. These people were originally from 12 countries, such as the United States, France, Greece, and Bulgaria, as well as the CIS countries. A total of 29 people from 12 countries.

It is also important that we are involving our colleagues from the new territories, the new regions under the Leaders of Revival programme. I know that they are here as well. You will tell us how it all went.

You also know that we have opened a new page – this is the Time of Heroes [personnel programme]. They are in this audience as well – those who have taken part in serving the Motherland in the special military operation zone. We have been receiving applications since March and 30,000 applications have already been submitted.

Obviously, the selection must and will be strict enough. This will not be a one-time event but a regular process. So those who do not make it in the first attempt have every chance to send another application and get onto this platform. And for those who do not have a university degree, we will create the conditions for receiving it, if that’s what they want, if they have such ambitions.

Obtaining a specific position is not an end in itself in these events. However, at least 470 people are already working in high positions and in the federal centre. I believe we have six deputy federal ministers, five deputy governors and governors in the regions, 10 people head municipalities (I see some of them here) while others work in the State Duma, the Federation Council, and our big companies with state participation – in general, in the most diverse areas and at a sufficiently high level.

It is very important that during this training, a certain community of people is taking shape. I am referring to those who undertake training and go through this competitive selection. What also matters, and I heard this from graduates in the previous years, is their ability to maintain these relations and exchange useful information that can be used at a specific job. I will repeat that this information comes from sources you trust and from the people that are very competent in their own areas.

This is probably all I wanted to say in the beginning. I would like to listen to you more, and I repeat, to hear your assessments and your proposals on improving this personnel selection system.

I have already said this many times, but I would like to repeat it again. The main advantage of this work, the main advantage of this system of training and selection is that it does not work through pull or by using one’s connections. What matters is one’s own personal and professional skills.

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Vladimir Putin: It is very good that our common efforts do not go in vain. When I meet with young people like you – young, energetic, results-oriented and interested in the impact of their work, and not just abstract results, which are also good in some spheres… An unexpected abstract result is good as well and should be set aside for possible future use. But this form of training involves people who are interested in the final result for the country. This is extremely important for those who are working on a practical project.

This is what I would like to say. It may sound trite, but I will say it anyway. When I meet with people like you, I have the feeling that Russia is in safe hands. Thank you very much for everything you have done so far, which is a lot, despite the young age of each and all of you together. I strongly hope and wish that you will have further significant personal achievements and that you will make your personal contributions to the country’s development. I am confident that it will be substantial.

Thank you very much, and good luck.