Russian President Vladimir Putin met with participants of the Fifth Congress of Young Scientists in the Catherine Hall of the Kremlin on Nov. 28, and expressed his strong support for the free exchange of scientific ideas among all nations, in order to foster creativity. According to account posted on the Russian President’s website, Putin began by stating: “To be honest, what truly amazes me is that the fifth Congress brought together around 8,000 participants from more than a hundred countries.” The goal, he said, was to “establish new contacts among people who want to engage in science, because science—like art or sport—must stand above political considerations.”
Putin rejected stultifying secrecy. “All countries in the world are trying to somehow cover up and classify these topics. But what do we know? We know that despite all the efforts by the states in these areas, everything is still becoming available to the entire humankind. Starting with gunpowder, which was invented long ago in China, and no matter how hard the then authorities tried to keep it secret, gunpowder ultimately became available to every nation. The same applies to the most devastating means of destruction—nuclear weapons. It is now an open secret that the inventors of nuclear weapons consciously shared this information with their colleagues in order to create a balance in the world and thereby guarantee a stable development of different states living in peace with one another, to create conditions under which no one would dare to use this destructive weapon of terrifying power.”
