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President Vladimir Putin:

Distinguished laureates,

Dear friends,

It is a great honour for me on this day, Russia’s national holiday, to confer on you the National Awards.

First of all, allow me to congratulate you on this day, the Day of Russian Sovereignty.

Our country has followed a difficult road of transformation over the last 15 years. These changes have had a far-reaching impact on almost every area of our lives. In what is just a short period in history our society has undergone a qualitative change in thinking and we have opened up completely new development paths both for the individuals who make up our society and for the state itself.

Now that many years have passed, we have the full right to say that the Russian Constitution is one of the most democratic in the world. People are the cornerstone of our constitution — their rights and liberties, guarantees for a decent life, business and public initiative, the chance to develop their creative and spiritual freedom.

This is why we see the Day of Russian Sovereignty as being an integral whole with values such as democracy, patriotism and civic spirit.

You who are gathered here today know well that the labour, talent and selfless devotion of Russia’s sons and daughters have always constituted the Russian state’s main source of support throughout every period of its history. There can be no doubt that the more room Russia’s citizens have to develop their constructive, creative energy, the greater our common national success will be and the greater our country’s authority will be in the world.

Life has shown us that today, too, outstanding scientific discoveries, new works of literature and artistic achievements are an integral part of and condition for national progress in general. We once again have confirmation that the intellectual, spiritual and cultural values of our people always were and remain the primary foundation for making our country highly competitive.

Our state now has the opportunity to put ever greater resources into these areas and carry through truly ambitious undertakings. It is not by chance that the State Prizes have gained in prestige and significance.

Let me emphasise once more: science and education, culture and development of the arts are all unquestionable priorities for state policy. Society’s noticeably increased interest in these areas is not just a logical development of events – these areas were always of particular importance for Russia’s people and for Russia in general.

Today, as in the past, these achievements continue to provide us with a source of spiritual energy, fuel to develop our minds and new reserves for economic growth and social development.

I believe it is of principle importance that all steps to modernise these areas should be subject to broad-based and open public discussion. And the great recognition that the state bestows on your work and your personal achievements, dear friends, is a worthy example and great incentive for all our people, above all, for the young generation.

The value of knowledge and talent, creative searching and artistic taste will only grow in modern Russia. I am sure that it will very soon bring significant and tangible benefits to our country.

Dear friends,

Let me once again name the winners of the State Prizes.

Alexander Yuryevich Kvasnikov, Valery Ivanovich Kolinko and Arkady Yevtikhyevich Vereshkin have been awarded a State Prize for creating a principally new optic-electronic cosmic control complex. Their work represents a genuine technological breakthrough, both in strengthening cosmic security and in a whole number of so-called dual-purpose technologies. Their work has given Russia an ultramodern and effective instrument for ensuring its national security while at the same time providing new opportunities for developing our peaceful space programme.

The work of outstanding Russian scientist Ludwig Dmitriyevich Faddeyev is well known and recognised throughout the world. His discoveries have formed the foundation for solving vital problems of mathematical physics and have placed Russia at the forefront of fundamental knowledge.

Today, not only the exact sciences but also the humanities are undergoing a revival, among them, archaeology – the eternal science.

Academician Vyacheslav Molodin and Doctor of Historical Sciences Natalya Viktorovna Polosmak spent long years studying and conserving the archaeological monuments of Siberia. They have opened up for us previously unknown pages in the lives of the people of ancient Eurasia, the culture of the Scythian period. Using the most advanced bio-chemical methods, they have preserved valuable exhibits for our descendents and for future generations of researchers to work with.

It gives me pleasure to welcome the winner of the State Prize for literature and the arts, the outstanding Russian poet, Isabella Akhatovna Akhmadulina. Her work is always sincere, refined and lofty and continues the best traditions of our literature, traditions set by Pushkin, Akhmatova, Pasternak and Tsvetayeva.

Another recipient of this high award is Anna Yuryevna Netrebko, a bright new star on the Russian and world musical stage. The Russian vocal school was always a great source of talent and it is pleasing to see that this wonderful tradition continues in this new century.

The architects and restorers Leonid Yegorovich Krasnorechyev and Ninel Nikolayevna Kuzmina, being true patriots and filled with devotion to their country, have put all their heart and soul into restoring a unique monument of Russian architecture – the Church of the Assumption near Novgorod.

Distinguished laureates,

Your personal achievements are not just exceptional and bright events in Russian science and the arts; they are the pride and glory of our nation.

It is deeply symbolic that we should be honouring those who have raised our Fatherland higher on this day, our main national holiday. Each of you has made an undeniable personal contribution to preserving our historic and cultural heritage, to reviving Russian science, education and to the renaissance of Russia’s spirituality.

Thanks to you, Russia has become stronger, richer, and has taken another step forward. You set yourselves ambitious, truly great and noble goals, and you have generously bestowed your talent upon your country and its people. I am sure that you will always find recompense, and not just in the form of state decorations, but in the love and attention our people give you.

I congratulate you and thank you with all my heart.

Thank you very much.

Alexander Kvasnikov: Comrade Commander-in-Chief, Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Comrades,

The fact that these state awards of such distinction are being presented on our national holiday, the Day of Russia, gives this event particular weight. I see this award, above all, as a sign of the state’s unfailing attention and its direction of the outer space control system’s development.

We can say that today, the outer space control system plays a vital part in ensuring Russia’s independent space activities and establishing the necessary conditions for guaranteeing our country’s security.

This unique optical-electronic system was created through the research and the selfless work of scientists, designers, engineers and the Space Troops in the area of introducing new technology and developing Russian-produced equipment for outer space control.

I want to express my particular gratitude today to the thousands of people who were directly involved in this system’s creation and who were, are and always will be the pride of the Russian nation.

It is very symbolic that today’s ceremony is taking place in the St George Hall which is engraved with the names in gold letters of Russians for whom serving their Fatherland was not a duty but an honour.

I serve my Fatherland!

Thank you for this great recognition you have given our work.

Valery Kolinko: Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin],

Please accept my sincere gratitude for this great recognition of our work on creating an effective Russian optical-electronic system for outer space monitoring. It is significant that this award is being presented on the Day of Russia. Russia is and always will be a world power in outer space exploration.

The labour of many scientists, engineers and workers at Russian enterprises has gone into creating the “Okno” system. This really is a unique outer space strategic intelligence system, one of its kind in the world. The scientific and technical achievements that have gone into this system, the equipment used, the algorithmic programme support, make it possible to use it not just for military purposes but also for civilian purposes such as operating satellite systems, space ecology, space surveying, astronomy, astrophysics, outer space security and the outer space law. The scientific, technological and practical experience gained during work on this system have opened up a new scientific-technical direction and opened up new methods and technology for creating complex information-measuring optical-electronic systems that ensure operational monitoring of outer space objects on a mass-scale. The results achieved open up prospects for further development of a space monitoring system for the country.

I want to assure you that we will continue to put all our abilities and effort into strengthening the state’s scientific, technical and defence potential for the good of our homeland and the peoples of Russia. Thank you.

Arkady Vereshkin: When the objective of creating this system was set, many well-known scientists and specialists called it an unrealistic goal. People from various areas of academic and sector-based science became involved in the work: specialists in solid state semiconductor physics, electronic transformation physics, optics, random process theory specialists, specialists in automated management theory and materials physics. The very complicated task was set of detecting a faintly moving object against a background of hundreds, thousands of stars. We resolved the tasks we set ourselves and I am sure that all our colleagues who are watching this awards ceremony today are filled with joy because their work has gained such great recognition. This was all possible because a well-known process in science, the production research cycle, has been carried out in full in our system. Academic research, fundamental research, scientific, design and experimentation work, creation of the technology, production, manufacturing the equipment – this is all part of a single cycle.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, as a representative of applied science, one of the links in this chain, this cycle, I think that particular attention should be given to applied science. This is an area that needs the state’s support.

Thank you very much.

Vyacheslav Molodin: Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich,

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

First of all, I would like to thank the members of the Presidential Council for Science, Technology and Education for the great honour they have done me in awarding me the Russian Federation National Award.

I would also like to express my gratitude to my colleagues at the Archaeology and Ethnography Institute of the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who shared all the joys and hardships of life during expeditions with me, and I would also like to thank academicians Derevyanko and Pokrovsky, who presented our work.

As I receive this award of distinction from my country today, I feel pride in my beloved science of archaeology and in the historical sciences in general, which have received such great recognition from my homeland. I am sure that it is on the foundation of our great, glorious and sometimes tragic history that we will build our state anew and inevitably make our country a great nation.

The recent celebrations of the 60th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War clearly illustrated how much Russians of all generations aspire to unity and a legitimate feeling of pride in our great people and its glorious achievements.

Science, and above all the Russian Academy of Sciences, which I have the honour of representing here today, is of immense importance for Russia today and will remain so in the future. In the almost 300 years of its existence, the Russian Academy of Sciences has always served its homeland in every way it can, sharing both the bitterness of failure and the triumph of victory.

I want to assure you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, that Russian scientists always have and always will serve their Motherland and their people.

Natalya Polosmak: Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, Dear friends,

Today, I represent archaeology at this ceremony. Archaeology today is not the science it used to be. It is no longer the science of people doing it alone and striking lucky, like in Schliman’s time, although, luck is an individual thing and that remains true today. But success in our branch of science today is due in large part to what we call a multi-disciplinary and multi-functional approach to studying the relics of ancient cultures. Numerous scientists representing the natural and the exact sciences in the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences have shown immense enthusiasm in helping us with their methods to study every aspect of and preserve unique artefacts and objects from frozen graves in the mountainous Altai region. Together we studied our past, which is itself an ephemeral concept if we forget that our past is no more than the predetermination of our future. And so I would like to say that a nation that, even as it goes through far from being the easiest period in its history, knows how to value the past, remembers it and gives such attention and support to the scientists studying this past, is and will always be a great nation.

Ludwig Faddeyev: Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

You all realise what a happy day this is for my family and myself. This award of distinction is recognition for 50 years of my work in science. I work in the area of mathematical physics. This is one of the most abstract areas of modern science but it has always had strong traditions in Russia, traditions laid in St Petersburg in the mid-eighteenth century by the great Leonard Eiler.

Fundamental science is international. Among my teachers I would name the German Herman Weil, the Englishman Paul Dirac and the American Richard Feyman. And here at home, at Leningrad University, I was taught by the wonderful scientists, theoretical physicist Vladimir Fok and mathematician Olga Ladyzhinskaya. I try to carry on their traditions as I can and sometimes I am successful. Without any false modesty, I can say that my work has obtained international recognition, but it is especially pleasing to receive such honoured recognition here in my homeland.

My colleagues, when they congratulated me, said they hoped that fundamental science would continue to enjoy recognition in our country. I also hope this will be the case.

Thank you.

Bella Akhmadulina: In humbly accepting this mark of such good and encouraging attention, I wish, according to my heart’s sincere dictate, to recall the names of great Russian poets, our not so distant contemporaries, whose fate was one of sorrow and who were treated harshly by the circumstances of their time. Their names and their miraculous talent will always overshadow our modest lot.

Thank you.

Ninel Kuzmina: Dear friends, Mr President,

Leonid Krasnorechyev and I had the joy of working for many years in Novgorod, rebuilding and restoring our ancient monuments and returning them to their former beauty. To commemorate the 60th anniversary of our great victory the world-famous fourteenth-century Church of the Assumption at Volotovo Polye, which was destroyed during the Great Patriotic War, was rebuilt practically from the ruins. This church, rebuilt by Novgorod restorers with the help of our German friends, has become a church for peace, a symbol of reconciliation between two sides, two nations, and an example of close international cooperation.

While working on the restoration of this church, we, our restorer colleagues, engineers, architects and workers in all different areas, thought about our Motherland, thought about preserving our nation’s cultural heritage.

Thank you very much for taking notice of our work and giving an award of such distinction to the Novgorod restorers. Thank you very much.

Anna Netrebko: Dear Mr President, Dear guests,

It is a great honour for me to receive this award of distinction today. Thank you very much.

I would also like to thank my wonderful teachers and the people who believed in me and without whom I would not have been able to achieve all I have. Now, when I perform on the world’s most well-known opera stages, I am very proud to be from Russia and I am glad that the Russian vocal school lies at the foundation of my education.

Happy holiday!

President Vladimir Putin: Dear laureates, Dear friends,

In concluding this ceremony I would like once more to thank our laureates for their work and for the results they have achieved. The nation’s ability to pursue its intellectual development, realise its place in world history and set itself development priorities in science and in artistic creativity are at the foundation of any country’s effective development. The example of our laureates is without any doubt a very good source of motivation for many people, but above all, I would like them to be a good example for young people. We have enormous potential and today’s ceremony confirms not just the possibilities for the present but also the truly excellent future prospects for our nation.

I congratulate you and wish you all the very best.