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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Friends,

As you know, this year marks the opening of the Nakhimov Naval Academy’s Vladivostok branch, where we are right now.

As I told the students just before, we put the schools, the one in Sevastopol and the one here, through a trial period as cadet schools and came to the conclusion that we could establish branches of the St Petersburg Nakhimov Naval Academy at both establishments.

My earlier visit to the Sevastopol establishment and my visit to this school here in Vladivostok have left me with excellent impressions. A great effort has been made here to provide the best conditions for daily life and for the fullest kind of study and much attention has been given to possibilities for extracurricular activities and creative development for the students.

Our task is to support young people in their desire to serve their homeland. It is pleasing to see that here, we will have the support of the experience and traditions of renowned educational establishments such as St Petersburg’s Nakhimov Academy.

It is important that Nakhimov Academy students will train now in Vladivostok and Sevastopol too. The Defence Ministry, by the way, has been instructed to open a branch in Murmansk too, so that young people who love the sea and want to devote their lives to the sea can be as close as possible to our naval fleets – the Baltic, Pacific and Northern fleets. The plan is to establish a common approach for organising study and practical training and preserve and build on naval teaching and traditions.

(The President heard reports from Head of the St Petersburg Nakhimov Naval Academy Rear Admiral Alexei Surov and Head of the Sevastopol branch of the Nakhimov Naval Academy Captain 1^st Rank Vladimir Piskaikin).

Vladimir Putin: We are establishing these cadet school branches in order to ensure a common methodological and training approach for the students and raise the level to that of the St Petersburg academy, which also must not rest on its laurels today, but continue its development.

This will require organising good contacts with the country’s top military academies, in St Petersburg, in particular, which is home to our main higher naval education facilities. You need to develop contacts with leading civilian educational establishments too, in St Petersburg and around Russia in general. The students must be involved in creative development in the broadest sense of the term. Without modern knowledge and modern methodology, it is not possible to train top-class professionals we will need for tomorrow’s Navy.

By the way, there should be no compelling students to go on to continue their education in military academies, but you educate young people in such a way that they will develop a love for the naval life in any case.

I hope very much that you will succeed in this. You have in your favour the proximity of the Nakhimov Academy and its branches to our main fleets – the Pacific, Baltic and Black Sea fleets. And I hope too that under the Defence Minister’s guidance, you will be able to provide good practical training opportunities, taking into account the age, experience and skill level of the students, of course.

I would like to see the students have the chance not just to undergo practical training with the various fleets, but also the chance to receive theoretical training with their future colleagues and friends at the different branches, with the students at the branches able to spend time at the central academy in St Petersburg. This would be very good for broadening the students’ horizons and giving them an overview of the situation with naval development in general.

As I said, the teaching staff and the management at the branches and in St Petersburg must be involved in constant creative development. I hope that you will work in just this spirit. Once again, I want to congratulate the staff at the St Petersburg Nakhimov Naval Academy and its branches on the upcoming Day of Knowledge. I wish you all good luck.