Meeting with permanent members of the Security Council

Taking part in the meeting were Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin Mishustin MikhailPrime Minister of the Russian Federation, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin Volodin VyacheslavChairman of the State Duma, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev Medvedev DmitryDeputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Anton Vaino Vaino AntonChief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office, Secretary of the Security Council Sergei Shoigu Shoigu SergeiSecretary of the Russian Federation Security Council, Presidential Aide Nikolai Patrushev Patrushev NikolaiAide to the President, Defence Minister Andrei Belousov Belousov AndreiDefence Minister of the Russian Federation, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev Kolokoltsev VladimirInterior Minister of the Russian Federation, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Lavrov SergeiMinister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Director of the Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov Bortnikov AlexanderDirector of the Federal Security Service, Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin Naryshkin SergeiDirector of the Foreign Intelligence Service, and Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky Medinsky VladimirAide to the President.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Colleagues, good afternoon,

The subject of our discussion today may not seem to be directly related to security issues. We will talk about an objective interpretation of history. At first glance, such issues should be relegated to the relevant fields of research, particularly history; they should primarily be discussed within the academic community - and that is indeed true.

Nevertheless, we all know that in recent years, history has often been used as a means of achieving political goals with regard to our country. This is often done in an opportunistic and unscrupulous manner. As such, this can be viewed as a current policy issue, and our country, its official authorities need to define their attitude to it. Therefore, I propose that we discuss this today. We have two speakers, Mr Medinsky and Mr Lavrov.

I suggest giving the floor to Mr Medinsky first. Please, go ahead.

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