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Medvedev, Putin after May Day demonstration visit Zhiguli bar

I’ve never been here,” Medvedev confessed and asked about the bar’s popularity among Muscovites
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, May 1 (Itar-Tass) — Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin have visited the popular Zhiguli bar in Arbat Street after the May Day demonstration. A table with the traditional dried fish, as well as crisps, nuts, Ossetian pies, crayfish and certainly, the Zhigulevskoye brand beer was reserved for them there.

“I’ve never been here,” Medvedev confessed and asked about the bar’s popularity among Muscovites. The owner of Zhiguli, Andrei Kobzon assured him that the bar is rather popular.

Despite the fact that there were rather many snacks on the table, the leaders decided to check the whole menu and went to the counter where each of them took a tray and chose what he wanted. Medvedev took boiled potatoes with cod and Putin - fried potatoes with a lamb sausage. Both chose the Zhigulevskoye unfiltered beer.

“It’s the right time: twenty past eleven,” said Medvedev, sitting at the table.

Leader of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FITUR) Mikhail Shmakov, Chairman of the Moscow Federation of Trade Unions Mikhail Nagaitsev, a number of State Duma deputies, including deputy from the National Popular Front (ONF), sixth-class mechanic Valery Trapeznikov also came to the bar after the May Day demonstration. They were invited to keep the state leaders’ company after the demonstration.

Despite the presence of the state leaders, the bar was open to all comers, but seeing their motorcade lined up at the entrance, few passers-by had the courage to enter. Meanwhile, a relaxed atmosphere prevailed at the table, to which testified periodic bursts of laughter.

Trapeznikov said that the conversation was “about a little bit of everything, and life in general.” According to him, with Medvedev he managed to talk about the prestige of working professions. The head of state, the deputy said, supported the idea that it is necessary to develop vocational education and raise the prestige of working specialties. Otherwise, he said, “no one will come to work on the shop floor.”

They also talked about the wages, saying that “they should be earned, rather than received.” Sports issues were also discussed. In particular, according to Trapeznikov, Putin suggested that there should be less foreign players in the national ice hockey.