CRIMEAN BRIDGE, May 15. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that the Kerch Strait Bridge opening was ‘an historic event.’
"A miracle has come true," the Russian leader said at a meeting and a concert on the occasion of opening the automobile part of the Crimean Bridge.
"I sincerely congratulate you with this remarkable, ceremonious and truly historic day in the full meaning of this word! It is historic because in different historical epochs, even during the tsarist rule, people dreamt of building this bridge, then returned to this in the 1930s of the past century, in the 1940s and the 1950s and, finally, thanks to your labor and your talent this project, this miracle has come true," Putin said, addressing construction workers.
"Thank you very much for that," Putin said.
The Russian president separately thanked the project’s organizers who "without any exaggeration put general state interests above their personal and group interests."
The Russian president also expressed gratitude to army engineers, ecologists, archeologists, scientists, designers, engineers and workers involved in the project’s implementation.
"Over 10,000 people are working on this construction site while at the peak of the work it engaged more than 15,000 people, almost 220 enterprises in related industries and, in actual fact, the entire country worked for that facility," Putin said.
Putin called the construction of the Crimean Bridge "a remarkable result that makes Crimea and legendary Sevastopol even stronger and all of us closer to each other."
"This will help develop the economy of Crimea and Sevastopol with a new pace and with a new quality and raise living standards," the Russian leader stressed.