OREANDA-NEWS.  February 17, 2012. Dmitry Medvedev presented Russian Federation state decorations to eleven foreign citizens in recognition of their great contribution to developing cooperation and strengthening cultural ties with Russia.

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PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Ladies and gentlemen, friends, it is a great pleasure to see you all in Moscow.

We are here for a ceremonial occasion today. I want to present you with Russian Federation state decorations, decorations awarded in recognition of your great services. Each of you has made a contribution to our bilateral relations.

You come from countries that have various longstanding and generally very good relations with Russia as friends and neighbours. But we live in a changing, global world in which everything happens very fast, and it is thus very important to give our relations a modern context and substance. This makes it particularly important to give our young people new chances for contact and productive work together, and you are doing a marvellous job of this.

Here today are people who have worked hard in this area, taking part in big business and humanitarian projects and achieving big results in culture, sports, and simply in developing ordinary contacts between people.

Let me name a few examples. They are all different, but are all valuable to us. There is, for example, the development of high-speed passenger rail links between Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, St Petersburg, and Helsinki, in which big international companies such as Siemens have taken part.

I want to make specific mention of another big project, in the cultural sphere this time – reconstruction of the Bolshoi Theatre, which is a national symbol and source of pride for Russia, while at the same it is part of the cultural heritage of all humanity. I am very pleased that people from many different countries took part in restoring this unique monument, all the more so as restoring masterpieces of this kind requires the very best of world experience.

With a number of big sports events on the horizon, in particular the World Student Games that will take place in Kazan in 2013, we are building the FISU (International University Sports Federation) International Education Centre. I am sure that it will help us to organise the 2013 Games at the highest level and help to bring new talent into the Olympic pool. We in Russia are working very hard at the moment to develop sports and physical culture. We have the Kazan Games coming up after all, followed by the Sochi Olympics and then the FIFA World Cup – many big competitions, in short.  

Without doubt, language, culture, and the humanitarian sphere are powerful forces for bringing peoples closer together. Here today are people who have made a special and very valuable contribution to developing humanitarian relations and bringing closer together everyone with an interest in Russia, its language, history, and modern life.

Ladies and gentlemen, you come from different walks of life, different countries, different cultures and traditions, but you all have one thing in common: you all feel warmth towards our country. Let me say just how valuable this is to us. I congratulate you all sincerely on these state decorations and wish you good health and happiness.

Now it is time to finally begin what we came here for. I propose that we begin the presentation ceremony.

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Ladies and gentlemen, friends,

The words spoken here today show we are indeed all different, all from different countries, but each of us has his or her own feeling about Russia and has done much to make the relations between our countries and cultures closer, more mutually beneficial, and more productive.

The world is a complex place in which we see many different processes underway. We have the economic crisis to complain about, and all manner of political difficulties that as a rule always come together with other problems. Most countries have their own problems today. It is my great hope that we all manage to resolve these problems as soon as we can in order to greet the future with confidence.

No matter what the situation, the immense work you do, whether in business, sports, or the humanitarian sphere, will always find its grateful beneficiaries. Most important is that this work really does strengthen the good relations between our peoples.

Once more, on behalf of the Russian Federation, I thank you for your work and for helping to build up the good ties between our countries.

Thank you very much for this. I wish you success in all of your undertakings.

One final important thing: come to Russia more often. We always look forward to seeing you and greatly appreciate your work.