How Vladimir Putin talked to college students in Rudnevo Park
President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday visited the practical training site for college students in the Moscow industrial park Rudnevo. The event, which began with a conversation about vocational education, ended with a discussion of Special Military Operations (SVO) with those training to operate drones. Among them there were even those who wanted to go to the Northern Military District after studying. Vladimir Putin approved this desire, recalling that drones are radically changing the principles of modern military operations.
The president’s visit was timed to coincide with the Day of Secondary Vocational Education, established in the Russian Federation in 2022. True, Rudnevo itself does not have permanent students: it only provides students from various Moscow colleges with the opportunity to work on modern equipment.
Vladimir Putin was accompanied by Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Maxim Oreshkin, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin and Minister of Education Sergei Kravtsov. The latter enthusiastically described how Russia is moving to a “regional-industrial principle of college management,” in which students are trained directly in production and to meet its needs. At the same time, he showed a presentation featuring a young welder with flowing hair, fashionable yellow glasses and a T-shirt instead of overalls.
The main item on the agenda of the visit was not the reports of the bosses, but the communication of the president with the students. The first to arrive were the employees of the student cafe, where Vladimir Putin and Sergei Sobyanin dropped in.
“Ilya, consider that you have completed the most important practice in your life,” the mayor remarked to the student who made coffee for the president.
Then the head of state spoke with those who are learning to work with precision instruments: the students shared plans for employment in large, reputable structures like Rosatom.
But the main meeting lay ahead for the president: as it turned out, Rudnevo is involved in training specialists for servicing drones. The popularity of drones skyrocketed after the start of SVO, when it became clear that small vehicles, previously used for entertainment, had become a key tool in modern warfare, with which one could conduct reconnaissance and destroy enemies.
“We smile, you need to position yourself very wisely so that both you and the workshop can be seen,” the mentor of the future drone pilots, dressed in blue overalls with the coat of arms of Moscow, instructed. While waiting for guests, they sat at the tables where the drones assemble, and busily worked with small screwdrivers and soldering irons. “After studying, I plan to work in civilian production,” one of them shared with reporters. “Maybe in the military?” — the TV correspondent clarified with hope. “Wherever the Motherland calls,” the student answered diplomatically but patriotically. Two more guys, sitting at a keyboard that looked like a gaming keyboard (with colored backlighting), were drawing some diagrams with squares. For autopiloting, they explained to a Kommersant correspondent.
As soon as Vladimir Putin entered the room, the students lined up in a semicircle in front of him. It immediately became clear that among young people, the craft of a drone operator has acquired a romantic aura, previously characteristic, for example, of the professions of a pilot or astronaut. “Since childhood, I dreamed of heaven...” Nikita Rechun told the president. Nikita had a drone, according to him, back in school, and he decided to become a professional in unmanned flight. He intends to enter the Moscow Aviation Institute and has already filmed with a drone in Altai, and now he wants to capture other regions of Russia. At this moment, a video was shown where drones at a special student training ground made sharp turns at high speed and demonstrated other elements of aerial acrobatics.
At some point, the conversation moved from a romantic plane to a practical one: two students said that after studying they intended to sign a contract and go to the Northern Military District as operators of unmanned vehicles.
One of them, Evgeny Chekhonadskikh, said that he also wants to develop new types of drones - for example, one that, like a kite, is controlled using a tail. Vladimir Putin asked what the advantage of such a design would be. “There are no advantages,” the student admitted. “This will be a test project.”
Other students told the president that they intended to develop a drone to assist military officers. “The work of war correspondents, as we know, is associated with great risk. And if this risk is minimized as a result of using your technology, it’s very great,” Vladimir Putin praised. After another student, the thin, dark-haired Suleiman Saygushin, expressed his desire to go to the Northern Military District, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief went into detail: “Modern unmanned aerial vehicles are gradually, but fundamentally changing the principles of warfare... They gain greater speed, and they have engines very powerful and have a long range.” At the same time, drones are capable of performing tasks that were previously only possible for army aviation, and “counter large aircraft,” said the president, also clearly inspired by advanced military technologies.
After this, Vladimir Putin once again looked into the cafe to clarify what was written on the pack of coffee he was treated to, and left the college. The students remained to answer questions from journalists: Evgeny Chekhonadskikh assured that his parents had known about his intention to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense for six months and did not object. Suleiman Saygushin, according to him, was inspired by his uncle: having lost a limb, he returned to duty after rehabilitation and now commands a company.
