Translated material
Services to the people
Top officials of the state answered census questions
On the first day of the All-Russian Population Census, Vladimir and Lyudmila Putin, together with their Labrador Koni, received census takers in Novo-Ogarevo. The president and his wife were interviewed by Daria Afonina, a second-year student at the Moscow University of Economics, Statistics and Informatics. Since the presidential couple was among the 25% of citizens responding to the extended census form, they were asked additional questions. As it turned out from the census taker’s conversation with the president, Vladimir Putin is employed at an enterprise that “provides services to the population.” Answering the question about his knowledge of foreign languages, Vladimir Putin indicated only German, keeping silent about his knowledge of English. But his wife Lyudmila Putina indicated three languages: French, Spanish and German. The whole procedure took the presidential couple 20 minutes.Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov chose to appear in person at the census site and answer census questions for himself, his wife and daughter. The head of government, judging by his words, works at an enterprise “providing public administration services.” Chairman of the Federation Council Sergei Mironov, answering the questions on the census form at nine o’clock in the morning, told reporters that the census takers should not be afraid: “These are educated, nice people. No one is trying to extract a secret from a citizen, the amount of his income. All questions are written correctly."
Patriarch Alexy II received scribes at his residence in Chisty Lane. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church took only five minutes to answer all the questions.
In general, the top officials of the state actively encouraged fellow citizens to take part in the census. Propaganda was carried out even from near-Earth orbit. Russian cosmonauts Valery Korzun, Sergei Treshchev and Fyodor Yurchikhin, now working aboard the International Space Station, promised to answer census questions on October 11 during a live teleconference with the Mission Control Center near Moscow. The astronauts will fill out the questionnaires themselves with special pens that are written in zero gravity. All this will take place in the Russian Zvezda service module of the ISS. Then the forms will be sent to Earth on the Soyuz descent module and, after appropriate processing, will be placed in the Museum of Cosmonautics.