On Thursday, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin arrived in Ashgabat for a two-day visit.Photo: Dmitry Astakhov/POOL/TASS
On Thursday, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin arrived in Ashgabat for a two-day visit. On Friday, the prime minister will hold talks with the president, head of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan, Serdar Berdimuhamedov.
And the day before, Mishustin visited the only Russian secondary school named after AS Pushkin in Ashgabat. In the study of the Turkmen language, Mishustin read poems in Turkmen.
– Can you tell in Russian what the poems are about? asked the prime minister.
– These are poems about the native land, about the Turkmen steppes, about the greatness of the mountains, – the guys explained.
– Tomorrow your school turns 21, the school is wonderful. It is important that the friendship between Russia and Turkmenistan grows, without education it is impossible, noted Mishustin.
The prime minister noted how evenly the children sit at their desks: their backs are straight, their hands are neatly folded.
– Judging by the way you’re sitting, you’re probably excellent students? Mishustin asked.
The children hesitated. As a result, among the students there were two three-year-old children.
– What was your favorite subject in school? the children asked Mishustin.
– Math! – admitted the prime minister.
Pupils who graduated from the Pushkin School (and the competition in it is 8-9 people per place) then strive to enter Russian universities.
– I look ahead: how can I enter Moscow State University? – one of the students asked Mishustin in the forehead.
– You can enter Moscow State University if you study and work hard, but we have a quota for Turkmen students. Now 30,000 Turkmen children are studying at Russian universities, Mishustin said.
Then the prime minister investigated the office of Russian language and literature. There was an elective for 10th grade humanities students. He studied Nekrasov.
– Do you remember the poem about the Russian woman who will stop a galloping horse and enter a burning hut? Who remembers it? Mishustin asked.
One of the students wanted to continue with the poem, but could not.
“We haven’t gotten to this poem yet,” the teacher explained.
Mishustin also looked toward the gym, where the players were currently working out, and then toward the library, where children and teachers were waiting for him. He asked the prime minister to help build a new school building. According to teachers, some classes already have 40 students. Mishustin instructed Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin and Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov, who accompanied him, to resolve the issue with the new body.
From school, Mishustin went to a meeting of the Russian-Turkmen business forum. It is carried out for the first time. About 200 companies with Russian participation are currently operating in Turkmenistan. Mishustin told businessmen that Russia is ready to consider simplifying customs, phytosanitary control and visa regime with Turkmenistan, as well as more actively cooperate in agriculture and increase the supply of engineering products.
– In the past two years, Russian machine builders have delivered seven diesel locomotives for the Turkmenistan Railways. Here our trucks are very popular, first of all, Kamaz. Now, together with Turkmen partners, the domestic automakers are working on a new order book this year, Mishustin said.
Projects are also planned in the field of transport.
– One of the promising joint projects currently being discussed is the construction of a highway along the east coast of the Caspian Sea. It is necessary to increase the cargo turnover of Russian and Turkmen ports on the Caspian Sea, to expand the supply of railway locomotives, freight and passenger wagons, Mishustin said.
According to him, Russia and Turkmenistan are also working to bring the North-South transport corridor (a multimodal route from St. Petersburg to the Indian port of Mumbai with a length of 7.2 thousand kilometers) to full capacity.
