Absolutely Invincible
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Russian President Vladimir Putin in remarks to school pupils says Russia is absolutely invincible and backs more Asian languages lessons
Russia has always been and remains “absolutely invincible,” President Vladimir Putin told a group of students at an open lesson marking the start of the academic year on Friday. The mentality of the Russian people makes it impossible for the country to be defeated by anyone, he added.
The president recalled the history of his own family, telling students about his ancestors who lived through World War II. According to Putin, his grandmother was fatally shot by a Nazi soldier but, even as she was dying, she was still thinking about her husband and told Putin’s grandfather “not to cry” in order not to upset her in her final moments.
Schoolchildren line up for the first day of classes at School Number 1636 in Moscow, Russia, September 1, 2023. © Sputnik/Maxim Blinov
“Do you understand the depth of these relationships between the ordinary people, this love?” the president said, adding that, even in the face of death, his grandmother was caring for her loved one. “How can we not take that for a model?” he added. Putin also said that all members of his family felt deep respect for each other and had a “strong inner culture.”
Putin also said he believes most families in Russia are like this. “And here I understood why we won the Great Patriotic War,” the president said, referring to the Soviet struggle against Nazi Germany in World War II. “One cannot defeat a people with such a mentality,” he said, adding that “we have been absolutely invincible. And we remain as such now.”
Russia should expand the study of Chinese and other Asian languages inn the country’s education institutions, given the continent’s growth in importance to world affairs, he told the students.
“Given the pace of development of Asian countries, the center of economic and political life will gradually shift to these regions, Putin said calling it “an absolutely objective, inevitable process.”
With that in mind, he added, it would be good for Russian students to learn Chinese and other Asian languages, while not neglecting “other vectors of interaction” with the world.
Setting that up will not be a quick process, the president cautioned, as it requires both funding and qualified teachers.
“But we will do this, relying on foundations built in the past, because Oriental studies in the Soviet Union and now in Russia have always been at a high level, as all our colleagues working in this field have recognized,” Putin said.
The president’s adviser for science and culture, Andrey Fursenko, said earlier this week that Russian universities should gradually introduce Chinese language courses in order to stay abreast of scientific developments.
“Do we want to keep pace with science?” Fursenko asked, noting that 30% of all scientific papers were in Chinese at this point. “We won’t force it on anyone, but we need to move in this direction if we wish to remain competitive.”
Fursenko noted that the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MFTI) recently attempted to introduce Chinese as the second mandatory foreign language, but ran into “fierce opposition” from the students.
His words came as Russia has been locked in a conflict with neighboring Ukraine for more than a year and a half. The latest developments have seen Kiev’s forces unable to breach Russian defenses in nearly three months since the start of the much-hyped Ukrainian counteroffensive.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Ukraine lost some 43,000 soldiers and around 5,000 pieces of heavy equipment between early June and early August, despite the massive military aid provided by Washington and its allies.
Source X/Kremlin/RT/AP
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