what Vladimir Putin did at Sirius

On October 4, Russian President Vladimir Putin held Sirius on the federal territory. Kommersant special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov I watched what was happening all day and evening and hopes that the six public events in which Mr. Putin participated brought at least some fruits of enlightenment on the eve of Teacher’s Day.

The meeting of the board of trustees of the Talent and Success Foundation was held in the new residential building of the new building of the Sirius Lyceum.

And remember the main thing: the federal territory “Sirius” is not Sochi! Not Sochi, understand?! I’ve heard this so many times from the event organizers from Sirius that I can’t help but share it so that it’s stuck in your heads as securely and meaninglessly forever as it is in mine.

– And then they come and say that they are in Sochi! – the employee of the press service of the Sirius Lyceum continued to demonstrate his zeal towards me. – And for us Elena Shmeleva (chairman of the council of the federal territory Sirius. – A.K.) constantly says: tell them all that Sirius is not Sochi!

So, understand, it’s finally all over: Sirius is not Sochi. And not even Adler.

And now I think only about one thing: is Adler Sochi? It is possible that Greater Sochi. But it’s better not to think about it. After all, Elena Shmeleva may think differently.

There were many children at the Sirius Lyceum that day. I guess that’s all. They appeared unexpectedly and anywhere on federal territory, like a flock of sparrows or, rather, seagulls, driving a wedge between the lyceum teachers and journalists (if there are seagulls flying like a wedge). Having blocked the entrance to the library, where they had set up a press center, they demanded “sweets” in unison, and then disappeared to reappear in countless numbers on the lawn, where the director of the lyceum was preparing to give another decisive interview. The camera of the federal channel on the federal territory instilled in them some kind of terrible power of demons… It infected, that is, infuriated and made the sunny Sochi day… wow, the day of the federal territory “Sirius” even more cheerful and even simply seething.

But first, Vladimir Putin came to the III International Olympiad on Financial Security, which also takes place on the Sirius federal territory in the Olympic Park, in the former main press center of the 2014 Olympics. Here gathered boys and girls aged 14–16 from what seemed like 19 countries, to whom Vladimir Putin told:

— One of the promising examples (of joint work.— “Kommersant”) is a project of a number of central banks in Asia and the Middle East, which allows them to issue and exchange their digital currencies. That is, a third party simply does not have any opportunity for abuse and to interfere with payments, including, for example, blocking a transaction, seizing accounts, or appropriating other people’s money and assets. And this, unfortunately, happens in the modern world. There are very young people sitting here (the hall was semi-dark, and perhaps Vladimir Putin really thought so.— A.K.), but I can say that this is done by self-confident adults, uncles and aunts, who, apparently, are not very smart after all, if they commit actions that ultimately harm themselves.

Young people, who are a couple of years away from becoming uncles and aunts themselves, in my opinion, were grateful to Mr. Putin for everything in advance.

“The world is gradually getting rid of the dictatorship of such a financial model, the purpose of which is only to drive people into debt, into bondage, turn them into economic colonies, and deprive them of resources for the development of entire regions of the world…” Mr. Putin continued.

And this semi-darkness, and these words, of course, brought some horror into a seemingly optimistic event like the International Olympiad, which Vladimir Putin a few minutes later with the help of a Brazilian student (Augusto Lemmerz from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.— “Kommersant”), seemingly unaware that things could suddenly turn out this way, transformed into “an international movement that we will call the Augusto Initiative” (after the student’s name.— A.K.)!

Another girl from Pakistan, Aeman Masud, gave the floor, the balances were respected, and in general, as noted by the head of Rosfinmonitoring Yuri Chikhanchin, who was entrusted by fate to lead the event, this meeting will, of course, become the main event in the life of each of those sitting in the hall that day. They shouldn’t even doubt it now.

In a conversation with teachers and students of the lyceum, the president was greeted by such friendly faces and sweet smiles that can only be found among teachers who experience real teacher happiness from the opportunity to share that school, lyceum is a special world in which the teacher is a true wizard who teaches children to be surprised by the beauty of the world around them, teaches them to dream and see beauty, and who hurries to the lyceum every day, because communication with children is the only thing that gives him true pleasure.

Lyceum students were also at the meeting, thanks to whom the pleasure was felt.

“Yes, we were preparing, of course,” said Ekaterina Nikulina, who is studying music in the flute class, after the event. “We practiced speech techniques, organizational aspects that are not subject to disclosure… And now we are still devastated… Yes, like a dream… Like a dream!..”

Nikita Iltyakov, on the contrary, seemed to feel a surge of strength after his meeting with the president.

“At first I was very worried, but after the first word that I uttered, clarity of mind came,” the boy in the bow tie now recited loudly and clearly.

The main thing is that she doesn’t leave him now.

It got dark. The meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Talent and Success Foundation has begun. Council members were inextricably linked with the president through video conferencing. Having spoken himself, Vladimir Putin warned the members of the board of trustees that after Elena Shmeleva’s report he intended to listen to the views of each of them.

It was better not to know about this for the President of Abkhazia Aslan Bzhania, who was scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Rus sanatorium. It was eight o’clock in the evening when he was asked to come from “Rus” to “Sirius”. And here, in Sirius, Elena Shmeleva was just beginning to talk about the international aspect of cooperation at a university located on federal territory.

However, after this, Mr. Putin still had to go through a meeting with the finalists and laureates of the “Teacher of the Year” competition. And this continued for about another hour.

And Russian language and literature teacher Evgenia Konstantinova was very worried about artificial intelligence.

— The teacher is already competing with artificial intelligence! – she exclaimed.

In fact, it is artificial intelligence (AI) that is already competing with the teacher.

— And there are even disputes whether AI can replace the teacher. I think not! — Evgenia Konstantinova admitted honestly and uncompromisingly.

Physics teacher Mikhail Ladnykh from the Belgorod region insisted that additional equipment such as the Leonardo da Vinci Bridge should be installed in school courtyards in order to instill a love (not hatred) for physics in elementary school students, and not just in older ones, who are already doomed to this love according to the training protocol.

What additional equipment will need to be installed in school yards to instill a love of chemistry, biology and drawing is still unknown. For obvious reasons, Mikhail Ladnykh lobbied only for his subject.

– These are pennies! Worthless! – Mr. Putin nevertheless reacted.

This was, in fact, the main problem: it was necessary to react one way or another to each proposal of the laureate or finalist, especially since it was made on the eve of such a holiday, and the best thing is to welcome every new proposal each time with new enthusiasm, so that no one I didn’t suspect it.

A teacher from the Astrakhan region, Andrei Zhurbin, recognized Russia as a literature-centric country, and how to react to this would have been completely unclear if he had not said that it is necessary to open houses of friendly literature in friendly countries as soon as possible: such as Azerbaijan (not Armenia, of course) and Iran.

The Russian president’s enthusiasm has once again been tested to the limit.

History teacher from Moscow Alexander Ojo specifically thanked the president for the new history textbook for grades 10–11. We thanked this textbook for everything. But they have not yet thanked for the way in which “the issue of culture” and “the issue of labor education” are spelled out.

Oleg Yankovsky, a teacher at the Russian Embassy in Iran, found a way to thank Mr. Putin for the fact that the teacher has been working in this country for three years.

As the night progressed, the gratitude became more and more refined and inventive. And the president of Abkhazia looked more grateful than everyone else, whose turn finally came at eleven o’clock in the evening.

Andrey Kolesnikov, Sirius