The Prime Minister has visited the Federal Migration Service’s Department for Sevastopol and the Artek international children’s centre, met with acting Sevastopol Governor Sergei Menyailo and acting Prime Minister of Crimea Sergei Aksyonov, and held a meeting on the development of children’s recreation.
From the transcript of Dmitry Medvedev’s remarks at the meeting
The Artek international children’s centre
At the Federal Migration Service’s Department for Sevastopol
With acting Sevastopol Governor Sergei Menyailo and
acting Prime Minister of Crimea Sergei Aksyonov
With Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets and Minister of Education and Science Dmitry Livanov
In the Artek international children’s centre
In the Artek international children’s centre
In the Artek international children’s centre
With acting Prime Minister of Crimea Sergei Aksyonov and group leaders of the Artek international children’s centre
Meeting on the development of children’s recreation
With Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets and presidential envoy in the Crimean Federal District Oleg Belaventsev
With acting Prime Minister of Crimea Sergei Aksyonov
With acting Sevastopol Governor Sergei Menyailo
With Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets and Minister of Education and Science Dmitry Livanov
The main event on the agenda of Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to the Crimean Federal District was a conference call on preparations for summer children’s recreation, which the Prime Minister held at the Artek international children’s centre on 26 May.
From the transcript of Dmitry Medvedev’s remarks at the meeting:
Meeting with deputy prime ministers
Dmitry Medvedev: <…> Plans provide for opening over 52,000 recreation camps where about 8.5 million children will spend their summer holidays. Our goal is to provide them with the necessary means to ensure that these camps meet standard requirements. To do this, we need to address several tasks.
< …> In 2014, major repairs are planned at nearly 500 recreation camps in rural areas and 46 health camps. Allocations have been approved for this purpose, including 6 billion roubles to be provided from the regional budgets.
The second issue of importance is health, life and safety requirements. Unfortunately, there have been tragedies in the past few years. Our goal is to eliminate them, and hence the issue concerns the rules of behaviour and safety measures during the transport of children to the camps and back, the quality of water supply and foods, sanitary requirements and fire safety rules.
The Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief held planned and surprise inspections. It was established this year that fire safety regulations were neglected in more than 800 camps. We must address this issue. Regional leaders are attending this videoconference, and I’d like everyone to understand that children’s safety is the personal responsibility of each of you.
Dmitry Medvedev: "In 2014, major repairs are planned at nearly 500 recreation camps in rural areas and 46 health camps. Allocations have been approved for this purpose, including 6 billion roubles to be provided from the regional budgets."
Third, we should find a way to help children in difficult life circumstances. The government has assumed responsibility for their summer recreation. In other words, we must provide them with free vouchers. Nearly 3 million of these children will be issued vouchers to health camps. Over 4 billion roubles have been allocated from the federal budget for [children’s] health and recreation this year.
This also concerns children in Crimea and Sevastopol… We must do our best to ensure that the children’s facilities located here meet our requirements and standards, which means that we need to create conditions and allocate funds to achieve this goal.
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Before the videoconference, the Prime Minister visited the Artek international children’s centre located on the southern coast of the Crimean Peninsula.
The Artek international children’s centre
Artek opened on 16 June 1925 as a children’s health and recreation camp and has operated year-round since 1928. The camp stands on an area of 216.6 hectares, of which parks occupy 102 hectares. The shoreline with beaches for children runs for seven kilometres from Ayu-Dag or Bear Mountain to the town of Gurzuf.
Dmitry Medvedev was taken to the viewing platform and visited one of the dormitories and the Suuk-Su Palace, which houses the Museum of Artek History.
During his visit to Artek, Dmitry Medvedev held a meeting with his deputy, Olga Golodets, and Artek Director Igor Leli to discuss the camp’s problems, in particular its dilapidated buildings that should be renovated as soon as possible. The Prime Minister said that Artek must satisfy all the requirements of a modern international children’s recreation centre.
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On 25 May, Dmitry Medvedev visited the Federal Migration Service’s Department for Sevastopol.
The Prime Minister hands over a Russian passport to a Sevastopol resident
The head of the Federal Migration Service, Konstantin Romodanovsky, told the Prime Minister about the issuance of Russian passports to the residents of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol.
Passports are printed in the Crimean Federal District, where temporary passport centres were established in Simferopol (Saki), Sevastopol and Kerch.
The Sevastopol centre has a staff of 284 Federal Migration Service employees who have been sent to Crimea from 60 Russian regions. A total of 105 work places with the necessary equipment have been established, so that the service employees can work in two shifts. The centre issues up to 7,000 passports per day.
As of 19 May 2014, the centre had printed 256,883 passports.
During his visit to the Federal Migration Service temporary centre in Sevastopol, Dmitry Medvedev presented Russian passports to three local residents.
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During a visit to the Crimean Federal District, the Prime Minister met with acting Sevastopol Governor Sergei Menyailo and acting Prime Minister of Crimea Sergei Aksyonov.
They discussed the development of the two new Russian entities, Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol, with a focus on social issues, namely the increase of pensions and salaries, the creation of jobs and the construction of housing. The Prime Minister said the goal was to “bring the quality of life in Sevastopol and Crimea up to national standards.”
