Meeting with Head of the Talent and Success Foundation Yelena Shmeleva

Head of the Talent and Success Educational Foundation Yelena Shmeleva Shmeleva YelenaHead of the Talent and Success educational foundation : Mr President, I am delighted to inform you that Sirius has started this new year with integrated strategic cooperation with the Republic of Kazakhstan - both in line with your instructions and following President Tokayev's state visit to Russia. We are building a Sirius international school and a talent centre in Almaty, in cooperation with the republic, the Ministry of Education, and the akimat.

Recently, we travelled there for a three-day Talent Summit. Children from all over the republic were invited to the event, just like we do it at Sirius. We presented our integrated study programmes for mathematics, physics, computer science, biology, as well as some interesting interdisciplinary programmes - similar programmes are offered as part of the Big Challenges Contest. All these initiatives evoked a very positive response.

We have laid a foundation for the school and are now launching these programmes. Mr Tokayev invited me to meet with him. He listened to my presentation and supported all our initiatives. For example, he suggested also opening a school in Astana.

It is good to see enormous attention, interest and respect for our Maths School and our interdisciplinary school of natural science. The Ural Youth Symphony Orchestra from Yekaterinburg gave a wonderful performance. Sirius alumnus Dmitry Fedenko performed a solo. The show was a great success among our future partners and schoolchildren from Almaty and all over Kazakhstan. Now, we will continue to boost our cooperation and create more programmes.

Kazakhstan is our closest ally, with whom Russia has a strategic relationship. Therefore, Kazakhstan is the first post-Soviet country to replicate the full-fledged model of the Sirius Educational Centre and our international school to foster talent from across the republic.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: This is great news, congratulations. Great news and great results. This is essentially what we agreed to achieve with President Tokayev when he visited Russia and learned about Sirius.

Just like in Russia, there are many talented children in Kazakhstan and it is extremely important to create conditions for their full-fledged development so that they can contribute to their country's progress. Sirius can offer a wealth of experience in this area, with methodologies not only developed but also tested in real-life conditions. I am confident that this project will be a success.

Yelena Shmeleva: Thank you, Mr President. Sixty thousand square metres. Six hundred children will live and learn there. It is a remarkable and ambitious project.

Vladimir Putin: What about Sirius itself?

Yelena Shmeleva: I have plenty of updates about Sirius. Thank you very much for coming to the opening of the concert hall. It is incredibly popular and events are usually completely sold out. We recently held the first festival there for young talents and their mentors.

There are many new programmes that cover both educational and awareness needs and cater to more advanced levels.

Of course, our model for cultivating talent that you started is unique and has no match in the world. It is an environment where the federal territory with its state programmes and universities attracts great interest from bright children from around the world and bright children from all over Russia. They keep coming there to study further, in universities. Aspiring scientists and scholars come to Sirius to work, study and teach their children.

Vladimir Putin: All children are bright. They only need conditions to showcase their talents.

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