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Russians revere moral values, compassion, says Putin

The president stated that awards for outstanding human rights and charity work help attract the attention "to important problems, issues on which human life depends, often literally"

MOSCOW, December 12. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin echoed famous Russian writer, Nobel Prize winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn, stating that social relations are more important that the country’s prosperity.

"Public opinion, active participation of citizens in the life of the country, active civil society is an enormous force, and I do not exaggerate when I say that it has decisive importance for Russia’s confident progress, for the reinforcement of our motherland, and for the consolidation of our people," the Russian leader said during the state award ceremony for achievements in human rights and charity work.

Putin quoted Solzhenitsyn, whose birthday was celebrated on December 11: "The air of social relations, their pureness is more important than the level of prosperity, industrial development and the state structure in general, as it is them that define the country’s life and future." Putin added that the state award laureates serve the purposes of social development, saying that they "strengthen the atmosphere of justice and peace, the very air of social relations."

The Russian leader stated that awards for outstanding human rights and charity work help attract the attention of officials and the society as a whole "to important problems, issues on which human life depends, often literally." "Your achievements remind us once again how powerful can compassion, responsiveness, sympathy be, how infinitely much can a person driven by a genuine desire to help others fight for truth and justice can do," Putin stressed.

On December 12, the Russian president awarded Chairman of the All-Russian Society of Disabled People Mikhail Terentyev and Rusfond President Lev Ambinder.