Andrey Kolesnikov’s report from Vladimir Putin’s meeting with members of the Supervisory Board of “Russia – the Land of Opportunities” and participants in the final, as well as the superfinal of the contest of the same name

On July 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with members of the Supervisory Board of the organization “Russia – a Land of Opportunities” and participants in the final, as well as the super final of the competition of the same name. And the superfinal, according to a special correspondent of Kommersant Andrey Kolesnikov, was, without a doubt, a meeting in the Catherine’s Hall of the Kremlin.

The meeting was planned in person, for this purpose the Catherine Hall of the Kremlin was in festive decoration. However, most members of the supervisory board, such as presidential aide Andrei Fursenko, first deputy head of the presidential administration Sergei Kiriyenko, and some others intended to participate in the project via video conferencing, since their plans, apparently, did not include a week-long quarantine, which was more ordinary participants of the meeting are covered.

Meanwhile, on the eve of the meeting, everything changed in an instant, and the highest command staff also had to be in the Catherine’s Hall. Maybe, in fact, on TV screens, they would look somehow secondary. And it all the same were members of the supervisory board.

That is, it can be stated that the mode of visiting the president, including in the Catherine’s Hall of the Kremlin, has been changing lately, and for the better. That is, you can go there and so, through the tests. And before it was impossible.

“Yes,” Aleksey Komissarov, the head of “Russia – the Land of Opportunities”, sighed before the meeting, “they outplayed something, but it’s all for the better, isn’t it?”

However, this was yet to be seen.

In the global project, which was supposed to be discussed at the meeting, the main thing, as I understand it, is the self-realization of its participants and the achievement of ambitious goals, including career goals.

Kristina Kopotilova, a methodologist at the kindergarten, proposed the creation of a single personnel reserve, and Mr. Putin approved:

– Good idea. Previously, we had everything through party bodies, all the reserves moved in the Soviet era, but now we need to create these tools, moving up the career ladder in the kindest, best sense of the word.

That is, now everything will be done not through party bodies, but directly through the state. Indeed, why is there a weak link here?

The next initiative was more fun. Anna Kozlova (game designer.— “b”) said:

— At last year’s Supervisory Council, the youngest programmer in Russia, Sasha Kravchenko, proposed creating a large-scale competition for video game lovers… I became interested in video games at the age of ten, took quests that developed logical thinking, studied story games that instilled the right moral values. Modern video games are not “shooters”, as some might still think, they are works at the intersection of high technology, art and education … By the way, I even met my husband thanks to games, and our son learned to read fluently at five years while playing the right games.

Wow, we were dealing with a family of gamers.

And this note, it seems, should have been written by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

“I completely agree with you,” Mr. Putin nodded. “The game, what you do, is not a toy business. Firstly, this is a colossal business, we know it, multi-billion dollar.

Yes, Anna Kozlova delicately avoided this issue. But I really wanted to do the project “Games of the Future”.

– The gaming industry is actively developing today, – added Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko. – It has really overtaken the film and music industry! In our country, according to VTsIOM, every fourth Russian regularly plays video games – this is 23% of our citizens. Of course, the question is: what games do we play?!

And if you count those who are bashfully silent about their passion, then just about the population of the country will turn out. The task now is for all of them, as I understand it, to take part in the Games of the Future.

Here the floor was given to Ilya Shtokman (former deputy mayor of Nizhny Novgorod.— “b”). And he said two words about himself. His speech was well delivered:

– At first, I had a generally typical story: school, wrestling classes, university, graduated from the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics, went to work. Here 1998 is a crisis. We decided to leave the country with my wife — we left! Abroad, he went from a loader at a bakery to a project manager in a large IT company!

– Where is the loader? the President asked.

Perhaps he meant: in what country?

— At the bakery, — answered Ilya Shtokman.

– A bakery is not bad, not the last place, – Mr. Putin came to terms with the answer. – When I was a student, I worked part-time. We were loading some bags at the railway station. But I didn’t really like it, to be honest.

Where he only, it turns out, did not earn extra money.

“No, we got the trays out of the oven,” explained Ilya Shtokman.

But, apparently, life was not enough.

— 2004. Decided to go back…” he continued. “I was often asked why I came back. I have always said that I want to live in a country where I want to live, and everything that I have done and am doing, I am doing just for this.

And when he left, apparently, he did not want to.

But it’s good that then again I wanted to.

The main thing is not to get sick again. But it seems that Ilya Shtokman is now firmly on his feet in Russia:

– Slowly, the business was built, the processes were debugged, but at the age of 40 it’s probably still too early to retire … – that is, he admitted that he got bored again. – A new story began here, the story of the “Leaders of Russia” – a competition where you can compare yourself with other managers, a competition that really changed my whole life. I didn’t make it to the first season finale.

But then it all happened again:

– The mayor of Nizhny Novgorod is appointed a man who also won the competition “Leaders of Russia”, we met there, and he suggested that I go to work in the administration! Didn’t even offer, he gave me a challenge! He said: you often say that you need to do this or that, or why they don’t see it, so go and do it!

On the one hand, such people were called “flyer” in Soviet times. On the other hand, the social elevator worked.

So he became the first deputy mayor of Nizhny Novgorod.

But after all, he fidgeted again in his place:

– There were many ideas and plans, but then mobilization was announced! On Saturday, I sat on a bench in the dacha, looked around, looked at my son, who was doing some of his own, probably very important things, and realized that everything that happens here is, of course, necessary and important, but our future, the future of the country is now being decided there, in the south! The country has been doing something for us for a very long time, and then for once she asked to do something for her. On Monday I canceled my reservation, on Tuesday I joined the army, and for nine months now we have been in the LPR.

I was interested in what’s next. After all, it cannot go on with Igor Shtokman for so long. And where will we see him soon?

– Ilya, this is an amazing, simply amazing story that you just told! exclaimed the president. “You know, in her, as in each of us, probably, but in your fate some part of the history of the country is reflected!” This is the country’s search for its place in life! And you have the same!

The main thing is that these searches for both Ilya Shtokman and the country should not be completely dragged out.

“By the way, I understand that the largest gas field in the north of the country is Shtokman,” Mr. Putin could not resist.

“Unfortunately, I have nothing to do with him,” Ilya Shtokman admitted with the most sincere regret.

“Yes, it is not named after you,” Vladimir Putin agreed, “but I am sure that streets, cities, parks, and schools will be named after your colleagues.

Now, for sure, and his, Ilya Shtokman, name.

After such and such.

Frenchwoman Christel Nean explained how to do independent journalism. She came to Donbass in 2016:

— And I decided that I need some kind of platform to publish my articles, my videos. I created my own website called “Donbass Insider”. While I worked at Donai, we had a full team, now I am almost alone to do everything, and I saw that the efficiency is not so. I’m not alone in this situation. Almost all Western journalists who tell the truth, despite the risks and threats, are all independent journalists who work on their own… And I saw that this is not the most effective option!

The truth is easier to speak in unison.

We’ve all built a good reputation, and the fact is that we tell the truth, all the time. So we have a very strong relationship with our audience, who knows that if they read our articles or watch our coverage, then everything we say is true.

How good it is for a person who knows that everything he says is true, unlike everything everyone else says. Just even envy takes.

The Frenchwoman knows what to do:

– Connect all journalists in one team so that all these guys who are now, like single fingers, are in one fist, which will be more effective in fighting Western propaganda! Because all these journalists are from the West!.. And we know how Western propaganda works and how to fight it effectively!

Fire and sword, as you know.

“You know, people like you are met, but rarely,” Vladimir Putin said honestly. “Out of more than eight billion people on the planet, people like you are still rare!”

That is, apparently, capable of tearing themselves out of their comfort zone. A French woman who moved to the Donbass is indeed a rare occurrence.

Alexei Komissarov gave the floor to Ivan Safronov. Did you flinch as I flinched? No, not that.

This Ivan Safronov heads the department of industry and trade in the government of the Kherson region. It means that there is something to trade (and something to trade).

Yegor Sechinsky told the president about the Digital Breakthrough and IT technologies and convinced that artificial intelligence is better than people think about it. Since Yegor Sechinsky always turned to the experience of Sberbank, German Gref received a question from Mr. Putin as a result:

– German Oskarovich, will artificial intelligence replace you as chairman of Sberbank?

We must pay tribute to the head of Sberbank, he thought not very long:

– Vladimir Vladimirovich, I hope not in my lifetime, but everything is moving towards this.

That is, he still seems to have defended himself in his post.

“You see,” Mr. Putin nodded, “progress is impossible with such people. Everything will slow down now.

Or didn’t hold back.

— Every year we invest in artificial intelligence technologies approximately the amount equal to one billion dollars. We get about $3 billion back from artificial intelligence a year,” German Gref said at the request of the president.

Artificial intelligence is something generous, according to German Gref. However, everything, as usual, depends, apparently, on how to count. And artificial intelligence will shortchange – you will not notice.

“This is the future,” said the president. “We are well aware of this: this is the absolute future!” In terms of importance for the country – for any country – this is no less significant than the atomic or missile project of the Soviet Union, which was carried out in the mid-1940s and 1950s in its time.

It was a big statement.

After this meeting, in the same First Building of the Kremlin, there was even a meeting on the videoconferencing with members of the government, dedicated to the development of artificial intelligence. Herman Gref’s speech was closed to the public.

But not from artificial intelligence, of course.

Andrey Kolesnikov