On January 26, the President began his four-day working trip to St Petersburg and the Leningrad Region by taking part in a keel-laying ceremony for the fifth serial multipurpose nuclear-powered icebreaker Leningrad at the Baltic Shipyard in the northern capital.
Later, Vladimir Putin visited St Petersburg State Marine Technical University and met with students – participants in the special military operation and volunteers. While there, the President chaired a meeting on the socioeconomic development of the St Petersburg metropolitan area and assessed the university’s technical equipment.
On the next day, the 80th anniversary of the complete lifting of the Nazi siege of Leningrad, Vladimir Putin took part in memorial events marking this date. The President laid flowers at the Landmark Stone monument, part of the Nevsky Pyatachok military historical complex, and honoured the memory of thousands of Leningrad residents and city defenders, killed during the siege, by laying a wreath at the Motherland monument at the Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery.
In the afternoon, Vladimir Putin and President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko took part in a ceremony to unveil a memorial to peaceful Soviet civilians, victims of Nazi genocide during the Great Patriotic War. They also spoke at a performance and concert dedicated to the memorial date.
On the third day of the trip, Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko took part, via videoconference, in a ceremony marking the launch of the trial operation of a new wintering complex at the Vostok Station in Antarctica. The presidents then visited the SKA Arena multi-purpose concert and sports complex in St Petersburg. The two leaders also held a separate meeting.
On January 29, Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko chaired a meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Russia-Belarus Union State in the Constantine Palace.
At the end of the trip, the President heard reports by St Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov and Leningrad Region Governor Alexander Drozdenko.
