Mishustin promised to allocate money for the construction of a new NSU campus. At the end of the working week, a delegation of Moscow officials, led by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, visited Vosibirsk.
The distinguished guest was shown a new postal terminal, the Vector Virology Center, but the main point of the program was a visit to Novosibirsk State University. NGS observer Stas Sokolov and photojournalist Alexander Oshchepkov accompanied the head of government. How they saw Mishustin and what they showed him at NSU — in our ironic reportage.
The arrival of high-ranking officials is causing the traditional administrative frenzy. Road services clean the streets, traffic controllers make sure that no traffic jams are created. In social networks, the townspeople even began to timidly ask if the high authorities could come more often, maybe Novosibirsk would become a more livable place.
Mishustin visited several key points in Novosibirsk, but the main point of the visit was NSU. The new building of the university was under siege — policemen controlled the approaches and entrances from all sides. It took an entire colonel to pass the bus with the local press.
Inside, the university looked almost empty. The few people in separate offices seem to have been left solely to create the appearance of some kind of life. In the central hall, through which the prime minister was supposed to pass, the elevators were stopped in advance by gluing the buttons. And the university staff and journalists invited to the meeting with the distinguished guests were strongly recommended to use the stairs to move between floors.
The work of journalists covering such visits looks rather strange from the outside. The press is brought in ahead of time and distributed into groups. Only the correspondents of federal editions from the «premier’s pool» can see the whole trip. The rest first wait a long time for the arrival of the main newsmaker to the city, then his arrival at a specific point. Something can be seen on TV — in an impromptu press center, arranged in one of the auditoriums, the main events are broadcast.
The observer of the NGS happened to observe the visit of the Prime Minister to the Mathematical Center and a meeting with the Governor of the Novosibirsk Region Andrei Travnikov. In the mathematical department, in addition to a certain number of employees of different ages, there was a group of students. The head of the center, Evgeny Vdovin, discussed with young people how it was possible to understand some general aspects of organizing project management. It was difficult to understand from the discussion what these projects were, in what area. But the students actively asked questions and even entered into discussions with Vdovin.
Almost an hour passed and everything outside the doors suddenly began to stir noisily. And five minutes later a delegation headed by Mishustin entered the room. The head of the matcenter led the guest to the board with traces of the debate and began to describe what the audience was doing at the moment.
— We have a workshop now …
— You mean a seminar? — Mishustin clarified.
— Not really. At the workshop, we teach students to work with prototypes of real projects.
— That is, a workshop? I am simply in favor of using the words of the Russian language, — said the Prime Minister.
“Workshop”, of course, sounded somewhat simpler. But the head of the math center decided not to argue about the terms. And then, speaking about the work of his organization, he was already operating with this definition.
Vdovin spoke about the numerous successes of the organization entrusted to him (one startup, two changes that went into further development and 17 articles in international journals). Mishustin, however, was especially impressed by the fact that people from the Chinese company Huawei come to work at the math center, because «it is more interesting to work here.»
“This is very important!” Exclaimed the distinguished guest.
— For example, Dima Morozov — he worked at Huawei, and now with us.
Dima, who was sitting at his laptop (a page with a code could be seen on the desktop), stood up modestly. Mishustin looked at him with approval, but continued:
— And the Chinese don’t come to work for you?
— There are no Chinese yet. But you understand, this coronavirus has now begun …, — the head of the matcenter was found.
The next item was communication with the governor. For this, all the furniture was removed in the office of one of the vice-rectors, except for the table and two chairs. A thick leather folder with a coat of arms lay on the table. Some time passed and Andrey Travnikov appeared. He now stood at the table, then looked out the window, then straightened the folder. It seemed that the head of the region was so absorbed in thoughts about the upcoming conversation that he did not notice the cameras and cameras aimed at him. At some point, he apparently realized that this public, agonizing expectation looked a little strange and disappeared through the doorway, appearing again only with Mishustin.
The Prime Minister was positively disposed and expressed his pleasure with what he saw at NSU. Travnikov, on the other hand, having reported, in general, about the results of the year (better than those of many neighbors), diplomatically, from afar, began to bring the conversation to the future ice hockey championship and the facilities necessary for its holding.
— It so happened that most of the financial burden on the construction of the ice arena lies with the local budget, — complained the governor.
Mikhail Mishustin coughed. The security guard rushed into the next room for water with such determination, as if it was a question of life and death.
“If you considered the possibility of additional financing, then we would be able to reallocate resources and complete the construction of all the necessary facilities,” Andrei Travnikov concluded the long prelude.
Mishustin warmly supported the idea of developing sports, however, regarding money, he asked to submit the necessary calculations and documents.
The last item in the program of visiting the university was a “meeting with women” — on the nose, after all, on March 8 (which is still celebrated by everyone on the last working day). Mishustin began the conversation with good news, saying that the government would allocate money for the construction of a number of facilities on the campus. A new educational building and a leisure center for a physics and mathematics school will appear here.
A three-dimensional model of the renovated university campus was displayed in the corridor of the university; Mishustin was brought to it while moving around the building. But now this message looked like the main gift of the distinguished guest, which he presented to those gathered together with bouquets of flowers.
Already on the way out of the courtyard of the new NSU building, the journalists saw a picturesque picture: a worker was installing in place a hefty «log» of a barrier at the entrance, which was removed according to some security service regulations. The guests left, which meant that both the university and the city as a whole could return to their usual rhythm of life.
