Tatarstan President meets Head of the Republic of Altai Aleksandr Berdnikov

11.09.2017

On September 11, during his visit to the city of Gorno-Altaisk, Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov had a meeting with Head of the Altai Republic Aleksandr Bordnikov.

Deputy Prime Minister Vasil Shaikhraziev, Aide to Tatarstan President Radik Gimatdinov, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of the republic Farid Abdulganiev, Chairman of the regional State Committee on Tourism Sergey Ivanov, Director General of Tatneft Oil Company Nail Maganov, Director General of Grid Company Ilshat Fardiev and other officials took part in the meeting.

Summing up the meeting in his interview with journalists, Berdnikov said Tatarstan is a powerful economically developed Russian region, which has great potential. “Together with the federal authorities, we will promote a lot of issues related to launching direct flights between the regions, tourism, cooperation in the field of pharmaceuticals, as well as the formation of a new concept of health tourism in general," he said.

Minnikhanov stressed that due to the country's leadership a large-scale modernization of the tourist infrastructure has been carried out in the Altai Republic recently. "Today this region is competitive. Last year, two million tourists visited the republic. I think that the flow of tourists will continue to grow. We, in turn, are interested in restoring direct flights (a direct subsidized flight on the route Kazan-Gorno-Altaisk-Kazan operated in 2016). As for trade and economic relations, our delegation includes representatives of the largest companies, which will also find common ground with Altaic colleagues in one way or another," Tatarstan President said.

According to Head of the Altai Republic, the protection of the snow leopard is an important area of ​​cooperation. "Leopard is depicted on the emblem of the Republic of Tatarstan. It is a sacred animal for the Tatars and the native population of Altai. We have the largest population of snow leopards in Russia. We talked to Rustam Minnikhanov and gave instructions to our ministers of ecology and natural resources to develop a programme for the preservation of snow leopards. A nursery for breeding snow leopard cubs will be built in Tatarstan, after which they will be brought to the Altai Mountains and released here. Our task is to provide a breeding stock," Berdnikov said.

Minnikhanov added that this initiative has already been supported by the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia. "We commit ourselves to breeding the snow leopard. But then they must live in their normal habitat. Therefore, we will bring them to Altai," he said.


Tatarstan President's Press Office, Bulat Nizameev