MOSCOW, August 6. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with the leadership of the Federal Center for Children’s Hematology, Oncology and Immunology to discuss plans to enlarge it, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.
"In connection with the tenth anniversary of the center, the president will receive its heads Alexander Rumyantsev and Galina Novichkova, who participated in its creation from the very beginning," he said.
"They will discuss how it operates, as Putin personally controlled its construction as well," he said. "Besides, they seem to have plans to enlarge it, which they want to share with the president," the spokesman said.
He reminded reporters that ten years ago Putin met with Dima Rogachev, a boy with leukemia. "The boy wrote to him [Putin], asking him to come, to have some tea and pancakes with him," Peskov said.
"The president visited him, and an idea was born to build [the center]," he continued. "It was after this meeting that the Federal Center for Children’s Hematology, Oncology and Immunology was born," he said. The boy died, but the Centre was named after him in his memory, Peskov added.
The spokesman stressed that the center has a special status for the president, and stays under the president’s patronage.