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Presidential promise: Putin vows to make the dreams of five terminally ill kids come true

One of the boys has a dream of making a video about the Il-96, the president vowed to invite him to Moscow, introduce him to pilots from Russia’s Special Flight Detachment and show him the aircraft

MOSCOW, December 5. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has pledged to fulfill the dreams of five terminally ill children.

On Wednesday, the president attended the Russian Volunteer Forum and inspected charity project stalls.

Volunteers briefed the head of state on a project dubbed, "Dream With Me", aimed at making the wishes of terminally ill kids come true. The related stand featured envelopes with letters in which children describe their dreams. Any of the forum’s participants had the chance to pick an envelope and make a kid’s dream come true. Volunteers suggested that the president also choose one. Putin gathered all five remaining envelopes and promised to fulfill the wishes they contained.

In one of those five letters, a boy describes his dream to make a video about the Ilyushin Il-96 aircraft. Putin vowed to invite the boy to Moscow, introduce him to pilots from Russia’s Special Flight Detachment and show him the aircraft.

Another child, who dreams about getting a bird's-eye view of St. Petersburg, will have a chance to take a helicopter tour of it. Putin said that he planned to visit St. Petersburg on Thursday and next week, so he would fulfill the child’s dream during one of these visits.

Putin also promised to ask Mosfilm Film Studio Director Karen Shakhnazarov and film director Nikita Mikhalkov to show a girl who dreams about having a look at the world of cinema from the inside, around the film studio. The president will also arrange another girl’s visit to the Russia Today TV channel’s headquarters so that she can conduct an interview with an interesting speaker.

The president was extremely touched to find out that a boy’s dream was to shake hands with him.

"This is very touching and very unexpected for me," Putin said and promised to talk with the kid’s doctors so that he can invite him to Moscow for the holidays and make his dream come true.