MOSCOW, September 1. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the community in the Tver Region on Friday evening where his family comes from, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS.
Earlier, video footage showing Putin getting out of his car and talking with locals was posted on Telegram channels and social media accounts related to the Tver Region. The footage is said to have been filmed near the Turginovo village in the Kalininsky District of the Tver Region.
"Yes, this is true," Peskov said when asked if the president had made a trip to the region. "After visiting the Senezh management workshop earlier in the day, Putin decided to travel to the community where his family comes from. That’s true. We will release information and video footage related to the visit in the coming days," the presidential spokesman added.
Video footage posted on the Tver69Live Telegram channel shows Putin getting out of his car and coming up to a group of people waiting for him and shaking hands with them. The people are welcoming the president, expressing good wishes to him. "I was surprised to learn that a university professor who is a PhD holder teaches physics at a local school," Putin said. "And he is happy working with kids. That’s awesome!" he added. The president said with confidence that if conditions were created, "people will start coming" to the area for work. Locals said that there wasn’t enough housing, and Putin agreed that more residential buildings needed to be built.
Earlier in the day, Putin, who was born in the city of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), mentioned his Tver roots during an open lecture at the Senezh management workshop outside the town of Solnechnogorsk in the Moscow Region. The president was speaking about a letter his grandfather had written to his son, Putin’s uncle, during the Great Patriotic War. Putin noted that his grandfather had been a simple farmer in the Tver Region.
This is not the first time that Putin has visited Turginovo. He traveled there in 2011 and 2016 to attend Christmas services at the Church of the Intercession, where his mother Maria had been baptized. Putin’s grandmother Yelizaveta Shelomova is buried in the old village cemetery.