On Monday, April 12, Cosmonautics Day, Vladimir Putin visited the landing site of Yuri Gagarin, 26 kilometers from the city of Engels.
-… And some, including myself, saw several symbols in this visit at once, – the journalist of Komsomolskaya Pravda shared with Peskov already this Tuesday, April 13. – Firstly, it was, in fact, the first trip of the president after the end of the pandemic. We saw Putin with a shovel, he planted a cedar. Cedar – we remember, this is the space call sign of Yuri Gagarin. The cedar was watered by Valentina Tereshkova. And it seemed to me personally that maybe this is some kind of launching pad before the announcement of the message on April 21st? Maybe we are on the eve of the beginning of the political year, and it will start not in September, but right now? How will you decipher this, Dmitry Sergeevich?
“Firstly, the pandemic is not over and there is nothing to symbolize here,” the spokesman said. – The pandemic continues, and you know that, unfortunately, there is a new exacerbation in neighboring European states, in Turkey, different situations in the regions of Russia.
She (the situation associated with the pandemic. – A. G.) is currently calmer than that of our neighbors, but it would still be wrong to say that the pandemic is over.
The cedar there (in the memorial park at the site of Gagarin's landing – A.G.) is traditionally planted, Putin is not the first to do this.
Well, it is clear that Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova accompanied him, because this is our legendary woman-cosmonaut, whom we are probably all proud of. She is a contemporary of the first cosmonauts, therefore, in fact, it is a great honor for any person when Valentina Vladimirovna is around.
Well, that's probably what I can say.
– And what about the launch pad for the beginning of the new political year?
– The political year is already in full swing, in fact … (Peskov repeated this phrase twice. – A.G.). You know that the activity of political parties is very high, everyone is already in such an active stage of preparation for the September elections to the State Duma, so everything is in full swing.
And the president's regional trips, of course, are not as frequent as we would like, but they were before and will continue in the future.
– Sorry, one more question. Both the president and Tereshkova were without masks. Does this mean that the “mask era” in Russia is over?
– No, it doesn't mean at all (it's over.)
Well, in fact, you must agree that they (Putin with Tereshkova – A.G.) were not in crowded places, after all, they were in the open air.
But the era of masks is not over, and this is what all experts – epidemiologists are talking about.
