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Taking part in the meeting were Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Anton Vaino, Secretary of the Security Council Sergei Shoigu, Presidential Aide Nikolai Patrushev, Defence Minister Andrei Belousov, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Director of the Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov, Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin, and Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Colleagues, good afternoon,

The subject of our discussion today may not seem to be directly related to security issues. We will talk about an objective interpretation of history. At first glance, such issues should be relegated to the relevant fields of research, particularly history; they should primarily be discussed within the academic community – and that is indeed true.

Nevertheless, we all know that in recent years, history has often been used as a means of achieving political goals with regard to our country. This is often done in an opportunistic and unscrupulous manner. As such, this can be viewed as a current policy issue, and our country, its official authorities need to define their attitude to it. Therefore, I propose that we discuss this today. We have two speakers, Mr Medinsky and Mr Lavrov.

I suggest giving the floor to Mr Medinsky first. Please, go ahead.

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