Vladimir Putin flew to Norilsk for one day on March 22, 2002. In the history of the city, this was the second visit of the state first person. In 1988, Mikhail Gorbachev, the Secretary General of the CPSU Central Committee, the future last president of the USSR, spent one day with the Norilsk people. He also toured the Krasnoyarsk region.
Answering the journalists’ questions, Vladimir Putin said that he was glad to have been invited by the region’s governor Alexander Lebed, as he got great impressions from the trip.
In Norilsk, the President of the Russian Federation visited the Octyabrsky mine at 800 meters depth. The General Director of the Polar Division Johnson Hagazheev told the head of the state about the mineral resources of the deposit. Talking with the miners, Putin said that the state would develop a program to support the relocation of people from the northern regions.
In 2010, Vladimir Putin flew to Norilsk for the second time, in the status of the prime minister.
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Text: Varvara Sosnovskaya, Photo: Nornickel Polar Branch archive
