Putin presents medal to the Tomsk branch of RGS for studying Siberia

TOMSK, Apr 23 – RIA Tomsk. The Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Russian Geographical Society (RGS) on Tuesday awarded the Tomsk regional branch of society with silver medal of RGS, follows from a live broadcast on Russia 24 TV channel.

As it follows from the broadcast, the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin awarded a silver medal to the Tomsk regional branch of the Russian Geographical Society for its vigorous research activities in the study of the Siberian region, Russia and the world. The award was given to Eduard Galazhinsky, the Rector of Tomsk State University and the Chairman of the Tomsk RGS.

"It is a great honor for us to receive such a high award, and I wanted to say: indeed, the Tomsk regional branch of the Russian Geographical Society has its very pronounced feature – the fact is that the RGS since its foundation is very closely connected with the university of which I am the rector. And actually Tomsk imperial university was founded for the development of Siberia", – Galazhinsky said at the ceremony.

According to him, for more than 140 years, the university carries out this high mission, and "the projects which the RGS organizes today go beyond the boundaries of just educating and educational projects".