Santa Claus, Crimean Bridge and Hockey: What Else Is On The Mind’s of Russia’s Brightest Kids?
Is it easy to govern Russia? What is Vladimir Putin's attitude towards the opposition? Did he have a day off on his birthday? Children from all over Russia unexpectedly received an opportunity to ask these and other questions to the head of state. The President talked with the children attending a Kremlin New Year event. These are A-level students, academic competition winners, and orphans. They asked about the Crimea Bridge, hockey, and Santa Claus.
Pavel Zarubin reporting.
A child: "I saw someone coming out of the car. And it was the President".
At the same time, there was a cry among the children walking around the Kremlin Christmas tree: “Putin!” In a few seconds, all the people on the whole Cathedral Square came running.
"Happy New Year, Happy New Year!”
Managing hundreds of extremely excited children is very difficult, they don’t listen to anyone but only crowd together. Putin succeeded.
Vladimir Putin: "Quiet, quiet, quiet! You must stop, there’re small ones here, you can hurt them You’re responsible people, aren’t you?"
A flood of questions.
- Does Santa Clause fulfill Putin's wishes?
- Santa Claus? Well, he does, some of them.
- And what do you wish Russians this year?
- Happiness!
Older children ask whether it’s difficult to govern the country.
- Is it hard for you to govern such a big country?
- It’s not difficult to govern a country like ours because there are such children like you.
- And how much do you write in a day?
- A lot, I can’t count.
A Kremlin New Year party guest from Tomsk, whether a future journalist or a politician, almost had a press conference with Putin, during which he even asked about the opposition and the Crimea Bridge.
- Can I ask you a question?
- Go on.
- Will you drive along the Crimea Bridge in your car?
- I will!
- And what’s your attitude towards the opposition?
- It’s positive, but towards a sensible opposition.
- And towards hockey?
- I love ice hockey, of course.
- Do you play?
- I do!
- We won here!
- Really?
- Yes, because there was eight of us!
- Did you lose?
- Of course, there was a whole team of them, and we didn’t have one.
A child from Sevastopol: "I shook hands with him! I had a dream, to shake hands with him. And now, it came true! "
The desires of thousands of children are coming true these days in the heart of Moscow.
Children: "Greetings from Sevastopol!"
It’s the first time they’ve visited the capital of their homeland.
- There's snow!
- Snow?
- I dreamed about it. I've never seen Moscow. It’s the first time I’ve visited here!
Pride, pride, most of all, pride.
- We feel the scale of our country.
- We felt protected!
- And where did you come from?
- From Kyzyl.
- From Tuva.
- Who is an excellent student?
- We are!
Some spent 9 hours on a plane, others spent several days traveling by train. Kamchatka, Tatarstan, Yamalo-Nenets Okrug, Kursk. The whole of Russia is on the main New Year party in the Kremlin. Boarding schools students, academic competitions and contests winners. The children also quickly found the New Year's explanations of why they met Putin.
- This is the Kremlin!
- Does the President always come to see children in the Kremlin?
- Yes! I saw the car passing by, many cars. And I realized that the moment of truth came.
- I looked there, and there was a limousine driving up. I thought it was some important person. But it turned out that it was the President who drove up.
- The most important person!
- Let’s wave our hands!
Putin still had a lot of important things to do.
“Happy New Year! Happy New Year!”
Pavel Zarubin, Pavel Meyer, Viktor Vinogradov, Dmitry Yermolenko, and Alexander Makarov, Vesti.