VLADIVOSTOK, September 1. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin named law, economics and politics as the spheres in which he considers himself an expert at a back-to-school gathering on Wednesday to mark the occasion of the Day of Knowledge during his visit to Russia’s Far East.
"Technically we are having a ‘lesson’ today. Had it been a real lesson, then I should have selected a subject," the head of state said, opening a meeting with schoolchildren.
He reiterated that he has an education in law. "This is a basic education. I went to a university for five years. We had a very good pedagogical and instructional staff. One can only be proud of people who taught us. In this sense, I can consider myself a specialist to a certain degree. I did defend [a thesis]," the president said.
Putin also noted that he can be considered an expert in economics which he is "preoccupied with virtually every day." He defended a thesis on the reproduction of the mineral raw material base. "This is an extremely important thing for our economy. Here in general I can also consider myself an expert and a specialist," the president said.
According to him, in the issues of politics he can "talk, as they say, as if I know the subject by heart." "Wake me up at night - I’ll tell you everything in the sphere of both domestic and foreign policy. We could have talked about this subject as well. Yet I’ve chosen history as a subject [of the meeting]. In this sense and in this area I don’t consider myself a specialist, an expert. And this is why we will have not a lesson but a conversation," Putin explained.
He explained that he made this choice because this sphere of knowledge is very interesting and encompasses all others. "Essentially, history is the centerpiece, the foundation for all knowledge in humanities. This also includes literature, and music, and philosophy, natural science, and so on. And all of this is extremely important not only because it is interesting to see how it was in the past. It is important in order to understand in what conditions we are living today, what awaits us in the future," the head of state concluded.
Education and advanced degree
In 1975, Putin graduated from the law department of the Zhdanov Leningrad State University (now the St. Petersburg State University) with a major in international law. He has a Ph.D. in Economics. In 1997, he defended a dissertation on strategic planning of the reproduction of the mineral raw material base in the conditions of forming market relations in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region at the St. Petersburg Mining Institute (now the St. Petersburg Mining University).