MOSCOW, December 17./TASS/. The online format of learning may have affected the quality of education in Russia, President Vladimir Putin told the annual news conference on Thursday.

"There are certain pluses, when there is a possibility to listen to big heads of world science, but maybe [the quality of education] is affected to a certain extent in the current work. That is why, it is better, of course, to have a mixed system," the president said.

Putin said he understood the students who were complaining about the remote format of learning and its cost. He also said that the issue of closing or merging higher educational establishments in Russia must be addressed cautiously.

"If we take the structure of expenses of a higher educational establishment, salaries account for about 70%. That is why, higher educational establishments have no ‘nest egg’ for lowering the price of education in the online format. Or we will have to shut down some higher educational institutions," Putin said.

"Some specialists believe that there are too many of them, specifically in capital cities, and they must be merged in any case. This issue was brought up by specialists in higher and secondary education a long time ago," the president stressed. He said that he was approaching the problem very cautiously. "There must be no dramatizing here, no putting the cart before the horse," the president warned.