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Putin arrives in Russia’s Sarov on a working visit

During the trip, the Russian president plans to get acquainted with digital products of the Rosatom state corporation. Putin will also meet with Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region Gleb Nikitin

MOSCOW, November 26. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Russia’s Sarov on a working trip, where he will visit the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics, one of the key centers of the Russian nuclear arms industry. The president’s arrival was transmitted on the Rossiya-24 TV channel. Putin had to postpone the trip the day before due to unfavorable weather conditions.

During the trip, the Russian president plans to get acquainted with digital products of the Rosatom state corporation. Putin will also meet with Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region Gleb Nikitin.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier that the president would have "a rather rich agenda" in Sarov. Peskov informed that the president would visit the nuclear test site of the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics and oversee the new developments. There will be many closed events, the spokesman added.

Putin will also hold a video call with head of Rosatom Alexey Likchachev on the situation in the town of Usolye-Sibirskoye in the Irkutsk Region, Peskov informed.

Usolyekhimprom, once the biggest chemical facility east of the Ural Mountains, became a source of environmental danger since its closure in 2005. Since 2018, a state of emergency has been in place in the nearby town of Usolye-Sibirskoye, home to more than 76,000 inhabitants. A large hotspot of mercury pollution, resulting after the 1998 liquidation of the mercury electrolysis production facility, is located at the industrial site where reservoirs with chemical substances are stored and the structures, soil, and the ground waters are saturated with toxins. The closest residential buildings are within 2 kilometers of the Usolyekhimprom plant. The town is located 77 km away from the regional administrative center of Irkutsk, on the left bank of the Angara River that drains out of Lake Baikal.

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