SARATOV, April 12./TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in the Saratov Region, in the southeastern part of European Russia, where he will hold a session in the city of Engels on the development of the Russian space industry, as well as will attend the site where Yuri Gagarin landed in 1961 after a historic space flight.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists earlier that while in Engels, the president would visit the Space Conquerors Park and would lay flowers at the monument to Gagarin built at the site where the cosmonaut had landed.
Later in the day, Putin will hold a videoconference reviewing plans for the development of the space industry. Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov and head of Roscosmos space agency Dmitry Rogozin will deliver reports. According to Peskov, President Putin will be accompanied on his trip by State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, who is a Duma legislator, as well as Saratov Region Governor Valery Radayev. The president will hold a separate meeting with the governor of the region located in the Volga Federal District.
On April 12, the world celebrates Cosmonautics Day. This year, 2021, marks 60 years since Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s historic spaceflight. Gagarin who was the first man in space circled the Earth once in his Vostok 1 spacecraft and returned safely, landing in the southeastern part of European Russia.